Union members at Jetstar have presented their employer with a petition urging Jetstar to "re-shore" their Payroll division.
Payroll at Jetstar, which was outsourced and offshored to the Philippines some years ago, has been plagued by problems including underpayment of staff, incorrect calculation of pay and leave, and incorrectly issued group certificates.
Although the payroll outsourcer has brought the work back onshore recently, mistakes have continued and there are fears payroll functions will be offshored again. The errors have been costly and inconvenient for all concerned.
The petition, containing the names of over 300 Jetstar ground staff from around Australia, states:
We the undersigned Jetstar employees express our concern that our personal payroll information including our bank accounts details, payroll deductions and personal employment details have been sent offshore by Jetstar in the past without our permission.
We understand that Jetstar may be considering sending our personal data offshore again and we do not want this to occur.
We believe our payroll should be processed in-house not by an outsourced provider. We are unhappy about the constant errors and mistakes with payroll and we want Jetstar to honour its obligation to pay us correctly.
In presenting the petition, during a meeting with airline management, staff hoped to underscore the importance of "secure jobs, secure data", and the ASU's union-wide campaign against services offshoring.
"When data-sensitive roles—these 'back office' roles people talk about—are offshored, the first impact is the loss of Australian jobs and skills," said ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White.
"The second impact is the endangering of private information. Remaining Jetstar staff are very worried about the security of their payroll information."
"We want it back onshore and in house."
Media Contact
Edwina Byrne - 0409 017 140
Linda White Assistant National Secretary – 0419 507 809