Hundreds of Qantas jobs bound for India as outsourcing talks begin with consulting firm Accenture
Hundreds of Qantas jobs in Australia could be moved offshore after the national carrier revealed it was in talks with a digital technology and management consulting firm about outsourcing back office roles.
There are fears hundreds of Qantas jobs in Australia could be moved offshore after the national carrier revealed it was in talks with digital technology and management consulting firm Accenture about outsourcing back office roles.
It is believed the jobs could be sent to India as Qantas chief technology, AI and transformation officer Rachel Yangoyan launches Project iQ to cut costs and bring more AI technology into the airline.
It is understood roles across its finance, marketing, human resources and other administrative jobs have already been identified as possibly suited to outsourcing.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.A Qantas spokesman said talks were only in an early stage, no formal agreement was in place and no decisions have been made.
“Like all organisations, Qantas has been looking at ways to accelerate the use of technology and AI to help us modernise the way we work and deliver better outcomes for our customers and our people,” he said.
“We have been exploring partnerships that have the capability to support us.
“We have added thousands of operational roles in Australia in the past few years, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers, and will hire thousands more over the coming years.”
The spokesman said Qantas was also opening a technology hub in Adelaide next month, with more than 400 roles to be based there.
Woolworths in June announced hundreds of finance, HR and IT jobs would be sent overseas to Asia as it seeks to “remain competitive with the rapid expansion of international players in the market”.
Telecommunications behemoth Telstra in February said hundreds of jobs would go to India as part of moved to axe 650 roles.
NAB in May said it would hire another 1000 staff at offices in Vietnam and India, continuing moves by Australia’s big four banks to shift IT and technology jobs into Asia.
But the move by Qantas has been met with caution by the Australian Services Union, which is demanding the airline commit to no job losses.
“What’s been reported today is that the airline is considering a proposal by Accenture, that’s not in dispute,” said ASU assistant national secretary Scott Cowe.
“What matters is that Qantas has informed that there is no plan to offshore any Australian jobs, and we demand the airline stay true to these commitments.
“If that commitment from Qantas turns out to be worthless, it won’t just be a broken promise to the ASU.
“It will be a deep breach of trust with the Australian public who have stuck by this airline through everything it has put them through.”
Qantas is still working to regain the full trust of the Australian flying public after illegally sacking nearly 2000 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, a chaotic restart after borders reopened, accusations it sold thousands of seats on cancelled flights and a cyberattack that exposed the personal details of millions of customers in June last year.
