QANTAS SHOULD SAVE JOBS AS IT IS A PROFITABLE COMPANY

The Transport Workers' Union has criticised the annoucement by Qantas that it could slash up to 1750 jobs, saying the company is still profitable despite the current airline industry cycle.

TWU Federal Secretary, Tony Sheldon, said the Union would be seeking urgent meetings with Qantas to discuss the lay-offs with the intention that job losses are minimized through a range of actions, including the transfer of positions throughout the Qantas group of companies.

"The entire airline industry across the world is a cyclical business but we must remember here that Qantas is still a very profitable company,"Mr Sheldon said.

"We will be talking to Qantas about how staff can be retained over this period with preference given to the retention of direct-hire staff. We will also be talking to them about the recall of affected staff as the situation improves.

"After all, it was only seven or eight weeks ago that Qantas finalised its latest agreement with its workforce, and that agreement was based on job security with appropriate wage levels."

"There is still opportunities for employment with the Qantas group of companies. Just this year Jetstar announced an increase of over 13 per cent in capacity in the first six months of the year," Mr Sheldon said.