It seems like when it comes to layoffs Qantas just has a hard time. Those of you who are loyal readers of our site will remember that former attempts by Qantas to let go of workers have resulted in protests, legal scrutiny and a general outpouring of negative public opinion that most other airlines do not cut when they jobs from the rosters, even when the cuts that they make are much larger than the cuts made by Qantas. This round of cuts, one of a fair number made by the company in recent years in an effort to cut back on costs during the global economic downturn, is going to impact a significant number of workers

This time the company is set to get rid of 400 of its workers at one facility and then another 660 from another facility. The 400 workers at the first facility who are soon to be out of a job are coming from the company’s heavy maintenance base just outside the city of Melbourne. The second set of layoffs, the 660, have yet to be confirmed official by the company. The information is coming from a source close to the company and the final number on this layoff may change before all is said and done. The company has, for the time being, admitted that they are doing reviews of the staff at the rest of their heavy maintenance bases. So it is likely the rest of the job cuts will also come from the remaining three bases.

The company is attributing the loss of its maintenance jobs to the overall cuts in the number of the flights that the company will be running. With fewer planes in the air there is a decreased need for plane maintenance, this means the company will be needing less maintenance workers. It all makes perfect sense, unless you are one of the people who is going to be put out of a job in a bad market in order meet the corporate bottom line.

The company expects to give its final decision by the middle of the month of May. When they have made a formal decision there will be more information on exactly how many jobs are going to be cut in order to accommodate the new flight schedule, which locations exactly the job cuts will come from and what kind of severance or job placement program the company is going to give the soon to be displaced workers. For the time being all the facilities workers can do is wait and see who is going to be out of a job and who is going to remain when all is said and done. Though the smart ones may want to being writing their resumes now and submitting applications, just in case they are more than one of the 1,000 people who are expected to get the bad news.

For those of you missed out on our earlier coverage of exactly how much animosity a Qantas layoff can generate, then you should take a look at the link.