Qantas ground workers plan 24-hour strike during school holidays
Qantas denies school holiday travellers will be hit by major disruptions despite hundreds of its remaining ground workers prepare to strike next week.
The 600 workers will down tools for 24 hours in Victoria on Wednesday, September 23 and the rest of Australia on Thursday, September 24, as the transport union pushes to strengthen work groups carved up by former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
Qantas freight flights are set to be disrupted by a strike next week. 9News
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) is demanding multiple enterprise agreements for ground staff and freight handlers working in Qantas companies Qantas Ground Services (QGS), and labour-hire firms be scrapped and replaced with one agreement.
“Workers do not take this action lightly,” said TWU national secretary Michael Kaine.
“Old habits die hard, and the same despicable Alan Joyce tactic of splintering the Qantas workforce has been dusted off by the new bosses who want to suppress wages and smash conditions.”
Qantas says it will hold talks with the union at the Fair Work Commission on Friday in a bid to head off the strike.
Next week’s industrial action is set to go ahead with school holidays under way in Queensland and Victoria, and just days before NSW schools break up, but Qantas says the strike’s impact on passenger flights will be minimal.
The airline said negotiations over conditions for QGS staff, who don’t service domestic or international Qantas aircraft, were ongoing.
The agreement covers about 650 employees, with the majority working on Qantas Freight and some QantasLink services.
A spokesperson for Qantas said the airline had plans to limit the impact of strike action.
Qantas unlawfully made more than 1800 ground staff redundant during the pandemic and outsourced their jobs. AP
“We have well developed contingency plans to minimise any impact on QantasLink customers and our operations, should we be notified of any industrial action.”
The staff at the heart of the dispute are the last remaining Qantas ground workers, after 1800 of their colleagues were illegally outsourced during the pandemic in 2020.
Qantas in 2025 was ordered by the Federal Court to pay $90 million over the illegal outsourcing of 1800 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff in 2020.
The airline also agreed to pay a $120 million compensation payment.
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