Qantas will cut 850 local jobs after inking a deal with professional services firm Accenture to “modernise its back-end systems, processes and data”. The deal will see the back office functions “mostly” shifted to India.
The first phase of the job culling and outsourcing will affect staff in finance, procurement, human resources and marketing, with those changes expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
The cuts build on earlier reductions of staff at the airline’s head office at Mascot in Sydney as the airline seeks to cut costs and increase efficiency in an environment of high fuel costs and dramatic technological change.
“I know this is hard news for some, and I’m sorry for the uncertainty it brings,” said CEO Vanessa Hudson.
She said the changes “are about modernising the technology behind our business and becoming more efficient, so we can keep investing in our customers, our people and our future”.
“Individual outcomes have not been determined and we will now work through consultation with affected employees and their union over the next few months,” Hudson said.
Citing the impact of AI and the need to modernise the more than 1000 back office systems currently in use by the airline, Hudson said Qantas and Accenture will together “redesign and simplify parts of how our corporate functions work and reduce duplication”.
“The first phase will start with finance, procurement, people and marketing, with some of the services in these areas moving to Accenture, delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia,” Hudson said. Accenture has more than 84,000 staff in India, according to LinkedIn.
Qantas last week announced reductions to capacity as high fuel prices continue to bite. Surging fuel prices - triggered by the Middle East conflict - have heaped pressure across the aviation industry. At the same time, the advent of AI has upended how travellers shop for, price and buy tickets, and unlocked new tools for the complex planning and operations within aviation. More broadly, the rise of digital networks has allowed what had once been management consulting firms, like Accenture, to offer high-level advice for corporations to pivot into the business-process outsourcing industry.
Hudson said: “Reinvention at this scale is not possible to do on our own, and through a partner we can access the data and AI skills that every industry in the world is competing for, because we cannot hire at the pace this work needs.”
Plans for the offshoring, under a program known internally as Project iQ, were first reported on in August .
The union representing the workers, the Australian Services Union, had sought assurances at the time that Qantas was not planning to outsource the roles from Australian shores.
Qantas said its consultations with the union are ongoing.
ASU Assistant National Secretary Scott Cowen said in August that: “Qantas has informed us 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.”
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