Fed: Qantas accident linked to maintenance contracting: AMWU

AAP General News (Australia)
04-24-2000
Fed: Qantas accident linked to maintenance contracting: AMWU

CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - Maintenance subcontracting may have contributed to the collapse
of a Qantas jumbo jet's undercarriage at Rome Airport on Saturday, the Australian Manufacturing
Workers Union (AMWU) said today.

AWMU Victorian secretary Julius Roe said Qantas had made cuts to technical and maintenance
areas and contracted out instead.

"They now have 500 people who are not direct employees working on the maintenance of
their aircraft," he told the Nine Network.

"It's quite clear there have been cutbacks in maintenance and it is also clear that
Qantas does not have full control over its maintenance operations."

Mr Roe said Qantas maintenance crews, who were among the most highly skilled in the
world, felt their job security and morale had decreased.

"They're being asked to do too much with too little and they've lost control over many
critical operations because of contracting out in Qantas' pursuit of short-term profits,"

he said.

"It does have a real impact on the reliability of the whole maintenance operation."

Mr Roe said Qantas must immediately announce a moratorium on further maintenance cuts
and the contracting out of maintenance, and must conduct with the AMWU a full audit of
maintenance practices.

Qantas aircraft operations executive general manager David Forsyth rejected the claims.

He said Qantas always had subcontracted 15 to 20 per cent of its maintenance.

"We currently employ more maintenance staff than we ever have before, over 5,500 staff
in engineering and maintenance, and we spend nearly a billion dollars every year," he
told Nine.

Mr Forsyth did not concede Qantas had lost control on contracted work as companies
doing such work had to comply with aviation regulations.

"In addition, Qantas has more stringent requirements than even the manufacturer specifies
in some cases, and we ensure that when the work's carried out by a subcontractor it's
carried out to the Qantas standards," he said.

Mr Forsyth said the rate of incidents and defects was unchanged but Qantas now had
220,000 flights a year.

He said the Rome accident and another seven months ago when a Qantas 747 skidded off
the end of a Bangkok Airport runway were out of character.

Mr Forsyth said they were unrelated as the Bangkok accident was operational while the
Rome incident was structural.

He said the gear strut could only break in such circumstances that occurred in Rome
where the plane was U-turning.

"Initial indications are that the failure mode that the undercarriage failed under
was a torsional load which only occurs during taxiing," Mr Forsyth said.

AAP fh/it/bwl e

KEYWORD: QANTAS AMWU

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