SYDNEY, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Qantas Airways, on government orders, began resumption of commercial flights Monday after a complete shut down during the weekend, airline officials said.
Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said in a statement on the airline's Web site. "Our focus is bringing our schedule back to normal as soon as possible. Safety will remain our first priority at all times."
Earlier, Fair Work Australia granted the Australian government's application to terminate all grounding of planes by Qantas and strikes by the airlines employees represented by the Australian Licensed Engineers Union, the Transport Workers Union, and the Australian and International Pilots Union.
The FWA gave Qantas and the unions up to 21 days to negotiate a settlement. If no agreement is reached during this period, binding arbitration will take place under the control of Fair Work Australia, Qantas said, The New York Times reported Monday.
"The industrial process has now passed into the hands of the independent umpire," Joyce said. "All parties will be treated equally and we will respect the decisions that are made.
"We have new and existing agreements with 12 unions. We now anticipate the conclusion of agreements with the remaining three.
"This has been a challenging period for Qantas, its employees, its customers and its shareholders.
"We sincerely regret the impact on customers of industrial action over recent months, and the effect on employees."
Qantas had grounded its fleet Saturday. But analysts said Joyce would likely allow the 21-day negotiation mandate to run its course on the presumption the airline will do well in arbitration.
Arbitration is unlikely to end Qantas' outsourcing of labor, a chief complaint of union leaders, said Andrew Stewart, professor at the University of Adelaide, an expert in employment, law and workplace relations.
Management at Qantas, Stewart said, "Obviously feel that they've got a chance of getting out of an arbitration with pay and conditions that they can live with and, importantly, they'll be hoping without any restrictions on the kind of outsourcing that they clearly have in mind."
"Business will generally say, 'government, stay out of our industrial relations, the tribunal should stay out of our industrial relations' until they start losing, until they are in a situation where it is the unions and the employees who actually have the upper hand," the Australian Broadcasting Corp. quoted John Howe, director of the Center for Employment and Labor Relations Law at Melbourne Law School, as saying.
The ABC said Sunday Qantas has been at odds with its unions for months and has been losing money steadily due to strikes and other job actions.
Qantas said it was losing $16 million a day because of the union's actions, but then said it was losing $23 million per day after the company grounded its fleet.
