Hundreds of Qantas ground workers will soon vote on industrial action as the company continues its Joyce-era tactics to relentlessly pursue short-term profits over worker and passenger standards.
The remaining Qantas Ground Services (QGS) workers, after 1800 ground staff were illegally outsourced, have seen pay, safety and conditions drop to rock-bottom levels.
QGS is a wholly-owned Qantas subsidiary set up under Alan Joyce to pay workers less than its “legacy” workforce, under casual and part-time positions. The workers now perform work for Qantas Freight and the company’s regional Q-Link service.
While Qantas workers used to all be employed directly by the company, they are now scattered across 38 different subsidiaries and labour hire companies, which has led to a revolving door in aviation, shocking safety concerns, and a dysfunctional aviation sector for the travelling public.
Recently TWU health and safety reps in NSW served Qantas with 14 provisional improvement notices over safety failings by management at Qantas Freight, where investigations are ongoing after a labour hire Qantas Freight worker was killed last year.
QGS workers are calling for job security, a fair pay rise after years of wage freezes have left them behind, and for the scattered work groups to be brought back together under one agreement.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
“New management at Qantas has made all the right promises but is still employing the exact same tactics that saw Joyce shunted out in disgrace.
“Over decades, billions of taxpayer dollars have been poured into this airline when times are difficult. But instead of the community seeing a return on its investment when times are good, they’ve seen standards for workers and passengers continue to be obliterated.
“When pay and conditions reach rock-bottom levels, safety suffers. We saw this deadly recipe last year when a Qantas Freight worker was horrifically killed in Sydney. Workers at QGS, and elsewhere across aviation, are saying enough is enough: it’s time for Qantas to invest in its workforce instead of continuing to trash jobs and safety.
“We cannot trust companies like Qantas to act in the public interest. It is now urgent that the Albanese government acts on its commitment to introduce an Aviation Coordination Council, to rein in Qantas’ disproportionate economic power and ensure aviation benefits the whole Australian public.”
NOTES
Qantas has historically employed aggressive tactics to stop workers fighting for fair pay and conditions:
– Its outsourcing of 1800 ground workers was ruled illegal, with the judgment finding Qantas made the decision to prevent workers exercising their workplace rights
– Qantas, also under Alan Joyce, grounded its entire worldwide fleet in 2011 to prevent workers fighting back against the decision to create subsidiaries with lower-paying jobs-a move described by then-Transport Minister Anthony Albanese as “extraordinary”
– It applied to terminate the agreement of international cabin crew in 2022 when they did not sign an agreement that would have lowered their pay and conditions
