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

Abstract

AbstractThe events following the collapse of Ansett Airlines in September 2001 provide an opportunity to explore the impact of internal labour markets on post-retrenchment labour market outcomes. This paper traces the labour market experiences of a sample of 649 former Ansett Airlines employees in the first eleven months after the airline’s initial closure. It reveals that many workers spent long periods in an employment limbo — officially ‘stood down’ but not retrenched — while waiting for their Ansett jobs to be resurrected under new ownership. During that time, many accepted fragmented, short-term placements in ‘bad’ jobs. After this initial period of uncertainty, however, many former Ansett 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. The 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.