Transport Workers’ Union fires up at Qantas boss for ‘patting poodles’ amid airport chaos after Alan Joyce ‘smashed workers’

Transport Workers’ Union National Secretary Michael Kaine has slammed Qantas CEO Alan Joyce over “absolute chaos” at airports around Australia. 

Mr Joyce, who joined Qantas in 2008, has seen the country’s largest airline battle ongoing staff shortages since borders reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr Kaine said Qantas’ management team are “out of control” as passengers continuously face longer queues, baggage delays and flight cancellations.

“He had his corporate team enjoying a wellness camp with yoga, with Zumba and patting poodles to make themselves feel better,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

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The TWU Secretary said despite Qantas having JobKeeper as a stream of funding during the pandemic, Mr Joyce had “smashed workers” and retrenched over 1,700 ground staff “illegally”.

“Last year, the Federal Court found that 1,700 plus ground staff that Alan Joyce’s management sacked, were sacked illegally,” Mr Kaine said. 

“The consequences of all of this, is that we have seen absolute chaos at our airports.

“You can’t take 1,700 experienced workers out of ground operations in Australian aviation, and not pay a price.

“This is a management team out of control.”

Mr Kaine said the aviation workforce in Australia has been “deliberately splinted” as service standards at the national Australian airline “plummeted”. 

“We have chronic understaffing, we have very low wages, and we have workers on minimum standards,” he said. 

“It’s not just personal suffering … it’s not just poor service standards … we now have a safety crisis.

“The current strains, pressures, fatigue and stresses that workers feel are very soon going to spill over into a very serious incident at our airports.”

TWU has called on the federal government to take action over the issue.   

The union has also written to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia Transport Safety Bureau and Swiss Board to discuss the matter. 

“We would rather sound the alarm bells now, than be accused after a catastrophic event of staying quiet and not ringing them,” Mr Kaine said. 

Baggage services across several Australian airports are set to be impacted over a 24-hour period after hundreds of ground handling staff voted to walk off the job.   

The Transport Workers Union announced on the weekend about 350 dnata ground handlers will take strike action from next Monday.

“They’re ready to fight for job security and a fair wage offer after being denied JobKeeper and now being threatened with their conditions going even further backwards,” it said.

Airports affected include Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, with the TWU saying the strike action will primarily impact international operations. 

Dnata provides ground handling services for airlines including Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Emirates.