Tens of thousands of stranded passengers were yesterday desperately hoping Australia’s workplace regulator would end the grounding of Qantas Airways’ entire fleet over a bitter industrial row.
The national carrier announced its shock decision to lock out union staff and cancel all flights indefinitely on Saturday, a move that left the country reeling and passengers scrambling for alternatives.
The travelers’ fate lies in the hands of the regulator Fair Work Australia, which reconvened an emergency three-person panel yesterday and was still sitting late into the evening.
Photo: Reuters
It could potentially suspend strike action for as long as 120 days so talks can take place or order a permanent termination to the dispute and so permit Qantas to take to the skies again.
Regardless of what decision it might reach, Qantas said there would be no flights until at least noon today.
“Qantas fleet remains grounded until at least midday tomorrow. A decision on afternoon flights will be made tomorrow morning,” it said on the social networking site Twitter.
After Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard took the rare step of ordering in the workplace mediator, a government lawyer told the tribunal the grounding was costing Australia’s economy “tens of millions” of Australian dollars each hour.
Gillard appeared to agree with Qantas that the row should be ended with “certainty.”
“The government ... is seeking to bring industrial action to an end and to have the dispute resolved so we can proceed with certainty with our iconic airline Qantas,” she said in Perth yesterday.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said earlier he too was seeking certainty and that planes would fly again if the panel ordered a full termination of all industrial action.
“A termination stops the lockout,” he said, adding that a mere suspension of the dispute was not good enough to settle a row tearing the 90-year-old airline apart.
Qantas said more than 68,000 passengers on 447 flights were affected by the grounding of 108 aircraft in 22 cities, with frustrated customers venting their anger at hubs from Europe to Asia and the US west coast.
Shareholders are also expected to make their feelings known when the market opens today. CommSec chief equities economist Craig James said many would reach for the “sell” button, sending the Qantas stock price even lower.
The unions are protesting against pay and restructuring plans that would see 1,000 jobs axed and the establishment of two new Qantas group airlines focused on Asia.
Joyce’s decision was taken a day after a meeting where union anger was directed at management.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique