Qantas talks with pilots, ground staff fail

Australian airline Qantas said it was unable to resolve an industrial dispute with pilots and ground staff before a midnight deadline Monday and the matter would now go to forced arbitration. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he was "disappointed" that three weeks of conciliation following the shock grounding of the carrier's global fleet had been unable to reach workable solutions. "We haven't been able to reach a new agreement with the Transport Workers Union through negotiations so we will now let the independent umpire decide," Joyce said of talks with the union representing 3,800 ground staff. "We made a generous offer which included reasonable increases in pay and conditions, protections on the jobs of existing Qantas employees and Qantas maintaining the flexibility we need to run the airline. The union rejected this offer," he added. "We did make some progress but we simply cannot agree to all of the union’s demands." On its 1,600 long-haul pilots, Joyce said "some progress" had also been made and there were some areas that might be able to be resolved but they needed Fair Work Australia to "bring the matter to a close." "Qantas did not terminate the negotiations today. Both parties concluded that an agreement could not be reached so the matter will be resolved by arbitration," he said. No final decision had yet been made on the dispute with engineers, who have until midnight to reach a deal with Qantas. Unions are angry about Qantas' plans to restructure its international business in Asia and want guarantees on wages, conditions and job security -- demands the airline says are impossible to meet.