Qantas, an airline provider in Australia, has been in the midst of a controversy surrounding its call center jobs. This company had call center operations in the cities of Melbourne and Brisbane in mainland Australia and minor operations in the city of Hobart in Tasmania.
As a part of its business strategy, the company decided to close down its offices in Melbourne while the Brisbane center would be shut down in 2016. This close-down is likely to affect more than 500 staff members, but they have been given the choice to relocate to another center. Most of these jobs are planned to be moved to its Hobart center, though many existing employees are unlikely to relocate.
Interestingly, these jobs were not sent to Hobart, rather it went to the New Zealand city of Auckland. The Australian Services Union has not been happy with this decision and it has accused Qantas of going back on its promise. According to the Australian Services Union, 120 call center jobs were closed in Brisbane and Melbourne, out of which only 45 have been moved to Hobart. 50 jobs have been sent to Auckland, which is expected to handle more transactional and high-volume calls.
In response to this accusation, Qantas has said that its employees were not willing to move to Hobart, and this is the cause for shortfall in jobs. However, it has also assured that the remaining jobs will be filled with local talent in Hobart. The company's spokesperson further said that 15 jobs already have been advertised in the local newspapers and the company is finding the right talent from hundreds of applications that it has received for these jobs, according to ABC Australia.
Going forward, it remains to be seen whether Qantas will fulfill its promise or not.