< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Qantas pilot Eytan Herson recently expressed how his colleagues are becoming more and more distracted in the cockpit as a result of their concerns regarding job security.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) was announcing its better jobs, better future campaign to urge the federal labor government to make it easier for the unions to negotiate job security clauses, the SMH reported.
A Qantas pilot for over 13 years, Mr Herson was speaking at an event hosted by the (ACTU) last week on the issues regarding the ongoing job security concerns.
Mr Herson, who is also a member of the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) which recently has been involved in an industrial dispute with Qantas employees said pilots are now looking elsewhere for employment because of the lack of job security with the airline.
“For the past three years there has been a constant threat of redundancy,” Mr Herson said.
“You do not want a distracted pilot on the flight deck for one important reason; in an instant a tragic error could occur, putting lives at risk.
“For a pilot, the ongoing job security concern is a constant distraction from our work that is not in the best interests of a company which prides itself on its safety record.”
Additionally, the ACTU president Ged Kearney said around 25 per cent of Australias workforce is in casual employment and many more hold insecure jobs.
“But what we’re seeing is a really worrying trend of people being forced to be independent contractors, when they’re really not, Ms Kearney said.
“They turn up to work every day, they do the same job, they’ve got the same boss, there’s nothing independent whatsoever.”