Qantas workers reveal the truth about airline delays and labor shortages under Alan Joyce

A former Qantas baggage handler has exposed the chaos behind the scenes as the airline struggles to save its sinking reputation with travelers experiencing long delays and flight cancellations.

The man who chose not to be named claimed that after 1,800 baggage handlers were laid off during the Covid-19 period and work was outsourced to third-party contractors, baggage was left in rooms for weeks and even planes broke down.

“Yeah, when the pandemic hit, we got JobKeeper for a while and were given enforced redundancy,” he told Nine’s Today Show.

‘Many men don’t want to go. Many older men with more than 35, 30 years experience, they don’t know how to apply for jobs online. So it affects older people.

An unnamed former Qantas baggage handler said the airline had suffered since it fired its experienced ground crew and replaced them with inexperienced contract workers.

The former Qantas employee said morale plummeted after experienced baggage handlers were let go and performance declined with baggage left in rooms for weeks and planes breaking down.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce takes home nearly $2 million annually but is the only boss of one of Australia’s top 100 listed companies not to receive a bonus in either the 2020 or 2021 financial years.

A former Qantas baggage handler said standard aircraft turnaround times would not be met due to inexperienced ground crew and understaffed

Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said the delays were not a result of outsourcing but could be blamed on the workforce-draining Covid-19.

‘When the older people leave, a lot of the boys suffer from depression. It was a very dark time.’

Luggage handlers say the outsourced ground crew workforce cannot match the skills and experience of those released.

‘You have a skilled workforce that has just been fired,’ he said.

‘The bag was in the room for weeks at a time, waiting to be claimed. There has been damage to the aircraft.

‘No morals at all. They are contractors, they are not even employed by Qantas. They don’t even get staff trips.

‘There’s no incentive even to want to stay there. You can’t just learn 30 years of experience with a 20 minute online security or safety course.’

During the pandemic, 15,000 Qantas workers were laid off without pay or forced to take time off in mid-2020, while another 2,500 were laid off in August 2021 – despite the airline receiving $2 billion in government assistance.

Qantas’ performance is near a record low after more than half of domestic flights in the first week of July were delayed or canceled (pictured, passengers waiting at Sydney Airport)

Much of the blame for the cost-cutting has gone to Qantas chief Alan Joyce, who revealed yesterday is the only boss of one of Australia’s top 100 listed companies not to receive a bonus in either the 2020 or 2021 financial years.

However, he still takes home $1.98 million per year.

Qantas sent reinforcements from headquarters to help deal with the chronic delay but they were of little help, according to the baggage handler, who now works for one of the third-party contractors.

‘Bringing in a 50 year old middle management guy, it’s a sedentary lifestyle for them and then they have to go in and dump 600 bags of 20 kilograms plus for eight hours – it hurts the lads,’ he said.

Qantas canceled 6.7 per cent of flights and had an on-time performance of 44 per cent in July (pictured, queues at Sydney Airport’s domestic terminal)

Luggage officials said the new workforce would take time to develop but staff levels remained too low.

‘Well, you know, give them enough time to learn their craft and they’ll get used to it, but if they’re understaffed, you can’t get the planes in and out on time… 40 minutes turn around, if you’re understaffed, you can’t do it,’ he said.

With more than half of its passengers experiencing delays or complete cancellations last week, it was a terrible seven days for the airline.

Qantas canceled 6.7 percent of domestic flights with on-time performance of just 44 percent.

Although Qantas apologized for its recent performance, it claims the workforce exhausted by Covid-19 is primarily responsible for the failure.

‘I can – first of all, (offer) an apology to all of our customers because, obviously, we haven’t reached the level that our customers expect of us, in terms of our on-time performance, in terms of our performance. operational performance,’ domestic and international Qantas CEO Andrew David told the Today Show.

However, Mr David said baggage handler claims did not accumulate.

Passengers are advised to beware of delays and cancellations as staff shortages lead to one hour delays and cancellations (photo, Jetstar flight rescheduling poster at Sydney Airport)

“The problem we’re having now is because we have Covid throughout the community and we’re getting higher rates of disease,” David said.

Mr David said outsourcing had been a ‘difficult’ but necessary step but the delays plaguing Qantas were part of an industry-wide problem.

‘It was a very, very difficult decision to make. As I said, it was a very difficult period for Qantas in general,” he said.

We have to make a lot of difficult decisions and that’s one of them.

‘But that’s not the reason why we don’t live up to the standards our customers expect of us.

‘In fact, it affects the entire industry, Ally. On Sunday, Virgin canceled 20 percent of its flights. We really chockers Brisbane to Sydney and Gold Coast to Sydney as we take a lot of passengers.

Mr David said Qantas was hiring again and seeing a steady increase.

“What I’m saying is ground handlers have increased their workforce by 15 percent since the Easter period, so they’re attracting people and they’re keeping people,” he said.

‘I think people have high expectations from national airlines and it’s our job to live up to those standards. We see improvement.

‘Our rate of mishandled bags is now less than one in 100. This is close to what it was before the pandemic.

‘Our call center wait times are now minutes instead of hours like before, but our on-time performance isn’t what it should be.

‘We are constantly making changes, to improve. We are confident that the public will see Qantas continuing to improve and we will return to the level and expectations our customers have of us.’

Qantas (pictured) says flight delays and cancellations have been exacerbated by staff sick with the flu and Covid-19

Many Qantas passengers claim that they are still waiting for a refund for tickets they purchased but cannot use.

Others who have gotten flights since have suffered lost baggage and up to 12 hours of waiting on the phone to speak to customer service to track them down.

The Transport Workers Union took Qantas to court in late 2020, when it ruled that the airline illegally fired nearly 2,000 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff before shifting their jobs to foreign-owned providers, including Swissport.

The airline, which argued outsourcing was a necessary financial measure during the Covid pandemic, appealed the decision and lost – but has since taken the case to the High Court in a last-ditch effort to avoid paying a huge compensation bill.

Qantas argued the move was necessary given the loss of $22 billion in revenue and more than $5 billion in losses during the pandemic.

He also said government grants were partly used to continue repatriation and flights of goods during the pandemic.

Sydney Airport estimates 2.1 million visitors will pass through its gates between 27 June and 17 July, while Qantas and Jetstar anticipate 350,000 travelers on the first weekend of July.

The delay is expected to continue until at least July 18.

The Bureau of Economic Infrastructure Transport Research’s timely performance data for May showed Qantas at 60.7 percent with a cancellation rate of 7.1 percent.

Official on-time performance figures for last month are not due until the end of July.

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