WORKERS PROTEST AT CAIRNS AIRPORT FOR BETTER, SAFER JOBS
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Dozens of TWU members will today protest at Brisbane Airport, calling on airlines, airports, governments and regulators to ensure fair standards at companies like Swissport which are bringing down the industry with an appalling safety record.
Over a decade of cost-cutting and outsourcing led by Qantas has led to crisis conditions at our airports, with poor pay and conditions driving skilled workers out of the industry and impacting on safety for both workers and the travelling public.
At Swissport, where workers experience some of the worse pay and conditions in the industry fuelled by clients like Qantas—which this week is in the Federal Court over its illegal outsourcing penalty—a TWU survey reveals crisis conditions.
The survey of 300 workers, comprising 10% of the workforce, revealed:
– 39% of workers have been injured while working at Swissport
– 73% are pressured to work unsafely
– 60% say they have outdated equipment
– 1 in 2 say their safety concerns are not resolved
In December a horrific incident at Swissport saw a 21-year-old worker nearly lose his leg.
Recent safety visits revealed that just in Brisbane, Swissport sees over 400 safety reports a month.
To fix the crisis in aviation and return decent, safe jobs, the TWU is calling on airports, airlines, governments and regulators to:
Airports: Prioritise airport, aviation workers and customers over record profits.
Airlines: Ensure all workers, whether directly employed or contracted, have safe, secure, and fairly paid jobs.
Governments: Establish a Safe and Secure Skies Commission that ensures the aviation industry is safe and sustainable.
Regulators: Review objectives of regulators to ensure safe outcomes for all aviation workers and the community.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
“We cannot have an industry where clients like Qantas are so ruthlessly cutting costs in their supply chain that we’ve got a young worker almost losing his leg just doing his job.
“It is an appalling indictment on the state of this industry that almost half of Swissport workers are injured on the job, three quarters are pressured to work unsafely just to get planes out on time, and their concerns are routinely ignored. This must end.
“This crisis in aviation is not going away by itself unless there is significant action from all levels: airports, airlines, governments and regulators all have a part to play to ensure decent, safe jobs and a reliable industry for passengers.
“Aviation members today are standing up for decent jobs, for decent standards in aviation and an industry that serves the community rather than CEOs and their pay packets.
“The Albanese government must put in place a Safe and Secure Skies Commission to stop the spiral of dangerously low standards and ensure there’s oversight in such a vital industry to our island nation.”