Qantas crew to get A$500 per week in JobKeeper replacement

Qantas has told about 7500 workers from its mothballed international division they will receive $500 a week for the next seven months as part of the federal government’s $1.2b aviation support package. The airline’s CE of international, Andrew David, informed staff at a town-hall meeting in Sydney on Thursday about the program, which will act as a safety net after the $500-a-week JobKeeper scheme that ends this month. The payment will go to international Qantas and Jetstar pilots, crew and other employees who are stood down from work until Australia’s international border reopens and they return to work, which Qantas expects to happen in late October once the COVID-19 rollout is completed. The cost of the government payments for 7500 Qantas workers over seven months will run to about $112m. A Qantas spokesman said the airline and government had not decided how the $500 wage payment would apply when employees return to work or training before October. The payment could either cease and Qantas would start paying the employee’s wages, or the government payments could convert to a wage subsidy as happened with the JobKeeper scheme.<br/>