Qantas crisis costing tens of millions

The shutdown of Qantas Airways' flights is costing Australia's economy "tens of millions" of dollars with each hour that it continues, a labour tribunal heard Sunday. The comments were made by a government lawyer at an emergency session of the country's industrial regulator that has been charged by Canberra with resolving the unprecedented grounding to avoid damaging the economy. "Hour by hour that goes by, there are potentially tens of millions of dollars of harm (being) done to the economy," said Tom Howe at an emergency session called by industrial regulator Fair Work Australia. The lawyer also reminded Qantas and the unions represented at the hearing that the tribunal faced "a mutually exclusive but compulsory choice between termination and suspension" of the grounding and union strike action. The tribunal president, Geoffrey Giudice, agreed that the damaging standoff should be settled urgently. "Time is on the wing," he said. "That's probably an unfortunate expression... but we do need to bring this to a conclusion very soon and if it means we have to do it by extortion I will do it," Giudice said. Qantas has said it was losing Aus$15 million (US$16 million) per week due to months of strikes and other industrial action by unions. Qantas has urged the panel to fully terminate all industrial action -- both union strikes and the Qantas lockout of union workers that forced the grounding of flights -- while unions want a suspension for 90 to 120 days. But Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce, who ordered the lockout, made it clear Sunday he would not put his planes back in the air unless he had the "certainty" of a termination, not a suspension, of all industrial action. Market analysts also warned that unless the row over pay and Qantas' restructuring plans was brought to a swift end, the crisis would take its toll on the stock market and the broader economy. "These things can have quite a negative impact on an economy," AMP chief economist Shane Oliver told the AAP news agency. "It is in an area of the economy that can have quite a big impact nationally." Australia's tourism industry has been staggering under the impact of the strong Australian dollar on visitor arrivals and expenditure and a long shutdown of the country's national carrier could worsen the problem. CommSec chief equities economist Craig James said many Qantas shareholders would sell their stock Monday, worsening a decline witnessed through the months-long row. "There's not going to be too many wanting to buy the stock and there will be a number wanting to get out or at least reduce their exposure," he said after Qantas stock closed down 1.59 percent on Friday at Aus$1.54 ($US1.60).