Hundreds of jobs to go as part of Rex Airlines entering voluntary administration

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Rex Airlines has entered voluntary administration, leaving thousands of workers in limbo. The Transport Workers Union says it's been told more than 600 jobs will go.

Transcript

00:00The nationals and unions are on a rare unity ticket of sorts, both calling for the federal

00:07government to step in and provide financial assistance to the airline.

00:13The union, the transport workers union, going a step further beyond the calls of some other

00:19unions and the nationals in saying that the government should actually seriously consider

00:26taking an equity stake in Rex.

00:29Now that would mean government ownership of an airline again.

00:33Of course, going back to Ansett, that was the case, but it hasn't been for some time.

00:39And yet again, we are seeing a situation where a regional carrier, albeit one that has ventured

00:46into flying on routes between capital cities, is struggling.

00:55It's of note here that at a state government level, in Queensland and WA, the Rex, the

01:01carrier, is subsidised to fly on some of those more regional routes as well.

01:08So they already do receive some assistance from various levels of government.

01:12They also received a package of support during COVID from the federal government then as

01:20well.

01:21So the federal government has been saying, look, this has only just happened.

01:26But initially they are saying they've been quite critical of Rex's venture into providing

01:35more services to capital cities, saying that the primary focus is to ensure that these

01:41regional flights do continue, and in many cases, the only flights between regions.

01:48They say they're yet to receive a specific request for financial support, but the transport

01:53minister, Catherine King, says they would be hesitant to just provide money with no

02:00strings attached, saying they would rather see a longer-term approach.

02:07The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has also said how critical these flights are, particularly

02:11for some of those regions where they are the only airlines operating, and has said

02:19that as part of this process, they are working with other airlines on potential for workers,

02:27if they are put off by Rex, to be re-employed by some of the other carriers.

02:34Servicing these regional routes is really important for regional communities and for

02:38regional economies.

02:39We know that.

02:40The Prime Minister, Minister King, the Premier of NSW have all made a similar point, which

02:45is that we want to see those regional services continue.

02:50Minister King, Catherine King, is also talking with the other airlines to make sure that

02:55if there are job losses, that the other airlines can re-employ and re-deploy some of these

03:00workers as well.

03:03Now on the job front, there has been a meeting underway with administrators, and the latest

03:07fears in terms of jobs affected by this are that there will be up to 360 job losses due

03:15to the grounding of the 737 planes, so the ones that are used for those capital city

03:21flights, and also a potential 250 across other areas of the business, so some 610 all up,

03:30with warnings that could grow up to around 850 as a result of this.

03:37For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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