Qantas workers are set to gatecrash the airline’s first shareholder grilling since its board copped a record protest vote against executive pay, as unionised engineers prepare to walk off the job again.
Friday’s annual general meeting in Hobart will be the first for new chairman John Mullen after his predecessor, Richard Goyder, left the business following a disastrous year for the Flying Kangaroo.
The airline’s brand was tarnished by findings that it illegally outsourced jobs, sold tickets to already-cancelled flights, and unlawfully stood down a worker for raising COVID-19 concerns.
Concerned by Qantas’s governance and a $21.4 million pay package for former CEO Alan Joyce, disgruntled shareholders voted 83 per cent to shoot down the company’s executive pay report at last year’s meeting.
Qantas chairman John Mullen will face angry shareholders and disgruntled workers at his first AGM since taking up the role.Credit: Michael Quelch
Faced with a possible board spill if it is voted down again, the board is hoping it has done enough to convince shareholders it has turned a corner. But pushback is expected either way, with disgruntled union workers set to gatecrash the AGM.
Before the meeting, hundreds of Qantas engineers will down tools across all major Australian airports.
They are after a pay rise of five per cent per year, with a 15 per cent first-year increase to compensate for three and a half years of “wage freezes and as an industry catch-up payment”, and claim Qantas has refused to up its initial offer of three per cent per year.
The unions involved said the stoppages would disrupt the scheduled flow of air traffic across affected airports, but Qantas said it had plans in place to ensure there would be no impact to customers.
AAP
