Ansett Airlines Employees: A Preliminary Survey of Post-Retrenchment Outcomes

By Sally Webber and Michael Webber

An examination of the labour market experiences of a sample of former Ansett Airlines employees in the first eleven months after the airline's initial closure.

Many employees spent long periods in employment limbo - stood down but not officially retrenched - while waiting for heir Ansett jobs to be resurrected under new ownership. During this time, many accepted fragmented, short-term placements in 'bad' jobs. After this initial period of uncertainty, however, many former employees found their way back to 'good' jobs - either in the aviation sector or in firms offering secure primary segment employment conditions. The uneven outcomes experienced by different groups of workers reflect the interconnections between workers' perceptions of their options, their attachments to Ansett, their age and household circumstances in the context of weak demand for their skills. This paper illuminates the ways in which the personal loyalties, social networks and work expectations developed within Ansett's rigid internal labour market shaped retrenched workers' job search, recruitment and re-employment outcomes.

(Economic and Labour Relations Review. vol. 14, no. 2, January 2004)