Qantas has admitted its operational performance has not met public expectation as it confirmed its contingency plan to cope with the surge in demand over the next three months.
The Australian on Monday morning reported the national carrier had asked senior executives and other office workers to fill in as ground handlers as the business ramps up its operations.
Chief Operating Officer Colin Hughes in a note to staff called on “at least 100 managers and executives to opt into a short-term arrangement over the next three months.”
“The high levels of winter flu and a COVID spike across the community, coupled with the ongoing tight labor market, make resourcing a challenge across our industry,” it read.
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“There are a range of strategies to get our performance back to where we and our customers expect it to be. While this includes recruiting thousands of new team members into our operation and ongoing recruitment by our ground handling partners, we need to build more resilience into our operation now.
“Establishing a short-term contingency team will help do this.”
The note goes on to say Qantas is seeking expressions of interest from managers and executives to join the contingency program.
“People who respond to the EOI will be trained and rostered into the ramp environment at Sydney and Melbourne airports,” Mr Hughes said.
“These people will support our ground handling partners, who are managing the Qantas operation, over a three-month period from mid-August.”
A Qantas spokesperson on Monday admitted the airline’s recent performance had not been up to par as it confirmed Mr Hughes’ note.
“We’ve been clear that our operational performance has not been meeting our customers’ expectations or the standards that we expect of ourselves – and that we’ve been pulling out all stops to improve our performance,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have done in the past during busy periods, around 200 head office staff have helped at airports during peak travel periods since Easter.
“While we manage the impacts of a record flu season and ongoing COVID cases coupled with the tightest labor market in decades, we’re continuing that contingency planning across our airport operations for the next three months.”
The revelation comes a year after the Federal Court ruled that the national carrier breached the Fair Work Act by outsourcing about 2,000 ground crew jobs to third party contractors in the middle of the pandemic – with Swissport taking on the majority of the work.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine hit out at Qantas for its latest attempt to fix staffing problems.
“It’s a shocking insult that nearly 2,000 experienced workers are forced to sit at home because their jobs were stolen from them while corporate ring-ins are being dragged to the baggage rooms to help ease airport chaos,” he told SkyNews.com.au.
“This isn’t the brainwave Qantas management seems to think it is.
“Introducing inexperienced office workers into specialist aviation workplaces will only increase the likelihood of serious injuries and safety incidents on site, throwing airports into further disarray.”
In the note, Qantas told staff they would be fully trained to “safely” carry out the required functions.
“During your time in the contingency program, you’ll be an embedded resource within the ground handling partners. This means you’ll receive a roster, be scheduled to operate and be supervised and managed in the live operation by our ground handling partners, ” Mr Hughes said.
The note also listed the key parts of the role which included loading and unloading the aircraft and driving a tug.
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