Monday, October 31, 2011

Qantas Dispute - Alan Joyce, A man witout a moral compass

I am not, and never have been, a Qantas employee but I am a Qantas shareholder and all I can say is - How can anyone take Alan Joyce seriously? How? He has just received a 71% increase in his salary and the rest of the executive have also received big increases and at the same time he is telling everyone else in the company they have to make do with less. The hypocrisy is stupefying. If he wants to be taken seriously let him reverse his, and all executive pay increases, and give himself only the same increase he gives to everyone else in the company. The union actions may cost me money, but then they have never been profitable shares, I only bought them because the government was selling a public asset and I thought I should at least keep some ownership of it, and they weren’t giving them away. As I was saying, the union action may cost me some money, but Alan Joyce's actions are morally corrupt. What's good for the workers Mr Joyce is good for you. Put YOUR money where your mouth is.
Alan Joyce grounded all flights until the unions backed down and he did so effective immediately. Had the government not intervened, how much would this have cost the airline and how does that compare to the cost of giving the unions what they want. It is certainly very bad for the Qantas image. He has single headedly done more damage to the brand than all the union action.
Further he made this announcement in a way guaranteed to cause maximum inconvenience to the public, i.e. without any notice. Not even the unions did that. He should have given at least two weeks notice so those needing to travel could do so earlier or make some other arrangements.
He has demonstrated a complete disregard for the company’s customers (probably thinking he could pin the massive inconvenience on the unions) and a hitherto unseen lack of people skills (TA [Mr Good People Skills] not withstanding). You have just succeeded in alienating your entire workforce. What sort of leader does that make you? Who will follow you now? Clearly you do not belong on the board of any company anywhere in the world.
Not good, Mr Joyce. Do you honestly think you are worth 5 million dollars a year? That's $100,000.00 a week. Every week you earn almost twice the yearly income of the average Australian and presumable the average Qantas employee. These people have to live in Australia not the cheap foreign countries with which you like to compare their wages.
Since you've made this salary comparison lets complete it shall we:
     Cathy Pacific CEO Salary: $1.4 million
     Singapore Airlines CEO Salary: 982,000
     China Southern CEO Salary: $153,000 - And this the largest airline in Asia.
Are you, Mr Joyce, prepared to drop your salary to match that of Asia's largest airline for the good of Qantas?
Alan Joyce, you are truly a man without a moral compass. Time for you go and please have the grace to do so without taking a huge and unearned severance package. No one in Qantas now has less to offer the company than you.
Please leave and as Kevin Rudd would say to someone of your miniscule stature - Adios and good riddance.