Qantas baggage handlers bid to save jobs

Qantas ground crews face a nervous wait after lodging a proposal to keep their jobs in-house.

Qantas airport baggage handlers are launching an in-house proposal in a bid to keep their jobs. Picture: Supplied.

Qantas baggage handlers, cleaners and other ground crews who face having their jobs outsourced have submitted a proposal to the airline in the hope of keeping the work in-house.

The 2000 employees were told in August that Qantas was planning to outsource all ground handling operations, in an effort to save $100m a year in efficiencies and operating costs.

Under their enterprise agreement, the workers were entitled to submit an in-house bid to compete with the likes of multinational companies such as Menzies, Swissport and dnata.

The Transport Workers Union engaged consultants EY to assist with the bid, which was lodged with Qantas on Monday.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said EY had advised that the bid was competitive, and should allow the workers to remain with Qantas.

“With EY’s expertise and the in-depth knowledge of our members about the Qantas processes, we have been able to submit a bid which is competitive on cost while maintaining standards on service and safety,” Mr Kaine said.

“Workers, some of whom have done this work for many decades, have identified numerous efficiencies and savings.

“We urge Qantas to award the work to their loyal, dedicated workers who they have invested time and money in training up to the high standards that Qantas passengers expect.”

A Qantas spokesman confirmed the in-house bid had been received, and he thanked the employees for the work they had done preparing the proposal.

“COVID has meant airlines have to make fundamental changes to their operations, and whether this work remains in-house or is done by specialist ground handlers, it has to be more efficient in the future,” the spokesman said.

Qantas workers protesting the outsourcing of ground workers at Darwin International Airport, Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

“We’ll review the bid against the tenders we’ve received from external suppliers and will provide an update to employees once a decision has been made.”

Outside operators already provide ground handling services for Qantas at 55 airports across the country, while the work is done in-house at another ten airports.

Mr Kaine said considerable cost savings could be achieved by Qantas by not having to pay out tens of millions in redundancies.

“Under our proposal, pay and conditions won’t go down but increases will be put on hold,” he said.

The jobs of 400 Jetstar groundhandling workers have already been outsourced, with most exiting the airline in recent weeks.

Mr Kaine claimed any outsourcing would only undermine safety standards but Qantas has vigorously denied that.

At the airline’s AGM last month, chairman Richard Goyder pointed out the performance of specialist ground handlers used by Qantas was just as good if not better than in-house employees.

“Take aircraft loading for example which is a core part of what ground handlers do,” Mr Goyder said.

“An average of 0.4 aircraft damage events per 1000 flights were recorded for outsourced operations compared to 0.8 per cent for Qantas staff ports.”