Qantas: Profits and Job losses = CEO gains

Qantas's annual report, released yesterday, shows "talking head" Alan Joyce's package totalled $5 million for the year to June 30, compared with $2.9 million previously. Qantas's share price fell 16 per cent in the same period while the airline's profits more than doubled.

His latest package includes $2.04 million in fixed pay and $2.2 million in short-term benefits.. It makes him one of the highest-paid airline chiefs in the world. Richard Anderson, the boss of US airline Delta, received $US8 million last year, while Cathay Pacific's former chief, Tony Tyler, received $HK11.48 million ($1.4 million) in his final full year.

Unions lashed out at the pay rises for Qantas senior executives, which have been disclosed three weeks after the company announced that it would axe 1000 jobs - mostly pilots, engineers and cabin crew.

Richard Woodward, vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, said the rises ''smacked of hypocrisy'' when management urged restraint from its workforce.


''They are taking huge pay rises when they are offshoring jobs to reduce people's pay and get around Australian workplace laws,'' he said. ''There is one rule for them and one for the airline's workers.''