20 February 2007

The strange case of the Flight Attendant and the English Patient

Those of you from the Shires who read the "Mail on Sunday " will undoubtably have been titlated by the story of Ralph Fienness and the Qantas Flight Attendant: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=436846&in_page_id=1879&in_a_source=

However there is something really rather funny about all this. Lisa Robertson (said QF FA) was not a full time FA employed by Qantas. She was in fact on casual assignment from the external Flight Attendant company "Morris Alexander Management". This is an interesting company founded by one Morris Alexander who himself (I presume its a he) was once a former FAAA (Flight Attendants Association of Australia) domestic division industrial officer.

I hasten to add that i am sure that Ms Robertson was a fully trained FA and up to par (clearly Mr Fiennes must have thought so at the time) in her capacity as a Coffee Tea or me person. And as a further disclaimer in case I get viscously attacked by another Flight Attendant - this is somewhat tongue in cheek.

Going back to the serious issue here, it seems her claim of being rather poor earning only £12,000/year is justified. Perhaps QF should pay their Flight Attendants (at least the contract ladies and men) a tad more. Then they wouldnt be quite so tempted to engage in flings with Hollywood leading men. So actually the big news is not the sexual antics at 35,000 Feet but rather the interesting way that QF handles its labor contracts. BTW have a quick look at this link off Google: http://www.airc.gov.au/documents/Transcripts/210203c20031094.htm
So I am not making it up!

No wonder QF was in such demand from Macquarie and TPG. Clearly there is a lot more to the buy out than meets the eye. I do hope the appropriate authorities investigate this (chuckle). Now when I fly QF next I am sure they will treat me nicely. I am not quite sure however if I will get the same treatment as Mr Fiennes.

Cheers

Timothy

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