Cash bonus for 25,000 Qantas staff due to record profit

This week, Australian airline Qantas published record annual profit results of A$1.53 billion (HK$9.04 billion). A large number of employees will get to share in the success as the company announced extra cash bonuses for 25,000 non-executive staff.

While some of the profit will go towards innovating the fleet and returns to shareholders, the company has not forgotten about its employees. Around 25,000 people will receive bonuses of A$2,500 (HK$14,778) or A$3,000 (HK$17,734) for part-time and full-time employees, respectively.

"This result belongs to the Qantas Group's amazing people", Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a press release. "Not only have they helped deliver a record performance. They've also earned record satisfaction from our customers".

Referring to the bonus payouts, he added that the employees' contribution deserves to be recognised.

Some might say the recognition is long overdue. Although Qantas appears to be looking out for its staff, the record profit is partly due to previously cutting 5,000 jobs over a three-year period. The transformation program left many employees with less hours, working on a casual basis, or no longer employed at all.

After the company turned its finances around in 2015, unions demanded a halt to any further planned cuts. “Qantas has cut full-time jobs and replaced them with part-time jobs. It is through their hard work and loyalty that the company has turned around and it is time to reward them with job security,” the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Tony Sheldon, told The Guardian at the time.

The cash bonus for 25,000 employees may be Qantas' way of slowly getting back into good graces with its employees. In a similar attempt last year, 28,000 employees who had been affected by an 18-month  pay freeze were rewarded a bonus payment of 5% of their base annual salary.

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Photo Source: Qantas