UNIONS will tell Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon that they will not accept the use of offshore labour as a means of driving down wages.
The unions are due to meet Mr Dixon in Sydney to get an update on the state of the airline and discuss plans to double the number of flight attendants based overseas..
The airline announced on Tuesday it would establish a base in London for 400 flight attendants by the middle of next year to generate $18 million in savings.
Mr Dixon refused to rule out further moves overseas, but said there was no immediate plan to send other work offshore.
But unions believe the flight attendant move is the thin end of the wedge.
“They are denying that there are any other plans, but we’re well aware that there are, and that they’re actively investigating other options,” ACTU senior industrial officer Richard Watts said.
“Clearly, those depend in some part on who they’re going to hold hands with in the future.”
Under the London plan, Australian flight attendants would be given priority to work under contracts of up to three years for a wholly owned British-based Qantas subsidiary.
The airline is expected to discuss remuneration and other issues with the Flight Attendants Association of Australia next week.
But Mr Watts said unions already had a general idea of the package and it was “not looking too good”.
Flight attendant salaries comprise a base rate, plus penalties and allowances accrued on trips.
Mr Watts said the incomes of some people not based in London would be cut because they no longer got to work on longer trips. But the key question was whether the motivation for overseas bases was to lower wages by contracting out jobs.
“I think it fits into their overall strategy … of having a section, if not a large percentage, of their workforce contracted out, to add to the competitive mix,” he said.
Mr Watts said the London plan faced logistical difficulties. The airline would have to renegotiate an enterprise agreement with flight attendants which capped offshore jobs at 370.