The pay and perks dispute between Qantas and its unions has taken a sinister turn with death threats sent to the airline’s Irish-born CEO, Alan Joyce.
Qantas, which is involved in an increasingly bitter industrial dispute with unions, described the death threats as “unhelpful and hurtful”
“We are seeing threats in the workplace,” said Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth.
“They’re personally attacking management, it’s one of those ways you can try and influence the outcomes of the industrial dispute – it’s very unhelpful, it can be hurtful and we’re hoping things can calm down a bit,” she said.
Senior staff at Qantas have had their car windows smashed and homes damaged after refusing to strike, and Mr Joyce himself received an explicit death threat, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Joyce does not believe union officials are responsible for the death threat, but he says the tone of pay and productivity negotiations needs to be ‘‘more conciliatory and less aggressive’’.
Both the Transport Workers Union and the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association have denied being behind the threats.
