Serious problems in the aviation sector highlighted by the poor treatment of Qantas workers won’t be fixed solely through extra competition, a union warns.

A parliamentary committee is continuing to scrutinise the role of lobbying by Qantas in the government’s decision to knock back Qatar Airways’ bid for extra flights.

Pressure has piled on Qantas following a potential $250 million fine from the consumer watchdog over cancellations, a High Court ruling the carrier had illegally sacked almost 1700 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and a Senate grilling on the airline’s huge profits during a cost-of-living crisis.

Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine called Qantas a “wannabe luxury consumer brand that really acts as a funnel for corporate greed” but said additional flights from Qatar Airways would not necessarily address broader problems.

“We’re not going to fix the serious problems in aviation by flooding it with competition necessarily,” he told the Senate inquiry.

“And we’re not going to fix it by leaving the status quo (intact).”

Qatar Airways has also been accused of violating worker rights.

The International Labor Organisation in 2015 claimed the carrier had discriminated against female workers by terminating employees who fell pregnant or got married in the first five years of employment.

Though these practices have been phased out in writing, Mr Kaine said reports of discrimination against LGBTQI and female workers were ongoing.

Asked if granting additional flights to Qatar Airways would be a mistake, Mr Kaine said such questions were “complex”.

Qantas’s treatment of its employees pushed thousands of workers out the door, leaving the country with an “anaemic workforce” that cannot attract new talent.

“We need to have a stable workforce before we can have any discussion about how we sustainably have a larger footprint for international flying in Australia,” he said.

“That could have been avoided if Qantas respected and valued its workforce.”

The Australian and International Pilots Association has called on Qantas chairman Richard Goyder to step down.

The association’s president Tony Lucas blasted Mr Goyder for overseeing “one of the most damaging periods in Qantas’ history”.

“The morale of Qantas pilots has never been lower, we have totally lost confidence in Goyder and his board,” he said.

Mr Goyder’s $100,000 pay rise to $750,000 “while staff are expected to accept a two-year wage freeze” was “a galling and tone-deaf decision”.

“For our great national carrier to flourish, it needs leadership from a board that understands the value of its employees, respects its customers and can win back the trust of a nation.”

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not call on Mr Goyder to step down, he said the airline had its work cut out.

“Qantas has a lot of work to do to repair the damage that has been done to its reputation, both in terms of workers and in terms of customers,” he told reporters in Adelaide.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie agreed that Qantas had “not covered itself in glory”.

– AAP