Qantas expects about 850 roles to be affected over coming years through its Accenture partnership, with initial changes by mid-2027.
The big change
- What changed: Corporate services face outsourcing.
- Why it matters: Outsourcing and automation are different processes.
- What to watch: Consultation and redeployment.
What happens to the work
The airline says some services will move to Accenture teams, mostly in India and partly Australia, with further automation and AI planned in time. It also plans to modernise systems and connect data to support wider AI use.
CEO Vanessa Hudson's email, reported by The Aussie Corporate, identifies finance, procurement, people and marketing initially. Consultation with employees and unions over coming months precedes individual outcomes.
An outsourced service can still be performed by people working for another company, potentially in another country. The 850 figure does not establish how many jobs AI will automate or how many people will be made redundant.
Qantas promises reskilling and redeployment where possible, not guaranteed placements.
What employees and the union are asking
The Australian Services Union has asked for details of the roles to be cut or kept in Australia, a concrete retraining plan, redundancy packages and consultation before individual decisions, Australian Aviation reported. The union says Qantas previously told it there was no plan to offshore jobs.
Qantas disputed that account, telling the publication it had not assured the union that jobs would not move offshore and had discussed the possibility of work moving to Accenture teams in both countries. The disagreement concerns what was said in earlier discussions; the reported statements do not resolve it.
For affected staff, immediate questions include which positions are in scope, when consultation reaches them, and what redeployment or redundancy terms apply.
