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The TWU has called on Qantas to “urgently investigate” safety and training standards in its supply chain following the death of a Qantas Freight ground worker on Father’s Day.
The unnamed worker, who was killed when struck by a vehicle at the Qantas Freight terminal in Sydney on 7 September, was employed by labour-hire firm Wymap, having lost his job at Jetstar to outsourcing in 2020, the union has said.
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SafeWork NSW is already investigating the incident, with the TWU also undertaking its own investigation and urging the Flying Kangaroo to cooperate.
TWU president and NSW branch secretary, Richard Olsen, called on Qantas to bolster its direct-hire workforce and reduce its use of labour-hire firms.
“Workers have been saying for far too long that without significant cultural change there is going to be a tragic incident at Qantas. We’ve now seen an aviation worker killed just doing their job, and it should never have come to this,” he said.
“Qantas has flooded its supply chain with labour hire workers who are not sufficiently trained, who are under-staffed and whose safety concerns are ignored. Workers are being maimed and killed at work and these are not isolated incidents.
“Aviation is at crisis levels – Qantas cannot keep hiding behind third-party contractors and evade accountability for the appalling practices happening in its supply chain.
“For over a decade Qantas has driven its workforce into the ground to put millions into the pockets of executives, and workers are literally paying with lives and limbs.”
In a letter to Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson, Olsen said workers in the freight shed had “consistently raised concerns about the lack of seriousness that Qantas has placed on safety and that safety has not been the number one priority”.
“Lack of training around heavy machinery, a culture of fear when it comes to speaking out about safety concerns (reinforced by the treatment during the pandemic of Qantas Ground Services Health and Safety Representative Theo Seremitidis) and a lack of action when issues are raised are just some of the concerns workers have had in the lead up to [the worker’s] death,” he wrote.
“Further, it is unclear as to why Qantas continues to use such a large number of labour hire workers when it already has three direct hire workforces at its disposal. Many workers at QGS, the largest direct hire Qantas workforce, are often not provided with more than 25 hours work when labour hire workers are provided with 38 hours work.
“It is highly concerning that Qantas would prioritise the use of labour hire, with its high workforce turnover and lower experience levels, instead of its own experienced workforce.”
Qantas was unable to comment due to the ongoing SafeWork investigation, but Australian Aviation understands it is conducting its own thorough internal probe.
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says:The TWU will never accept that outsourcing work from an under worked enterprise to a full time situation is a benefit to all concerned and to claim that outsourcing is the cause of work related injuries is a stretch and hardly true. Specific workplace activities are in place after complete studies by all concerned, union/employers/staff reps. It is the workers responsibility to adhere to the correct approved work practices this being monitored by both the operational Supv and the applicable union delegate. Unfortunately, accidents have and will always occur and tragically, mostly these incidents are caused by non-adherence to standard operational procedures. If the worker hasn’t been trained for the task in question he/she should not be working unsupervised, end of.