Perhaps the worst criticism came when Qantas fired its employees only to contract their services to a third party, Swissport. However, the Federal Court in July 2021 ruled the national carrier breached the Fair Work Act by outsourcing about 2,000 ground crew jobs, with Swissport taking on most of the work. The oneworld alliance member lost its appeal against the court's decision at the beginning of last month and planned to take the case to the High Court. If it fails again, the airline must pay a whale-sized compensation bill.
Left without a formidable short-term or even a long-term solution to its staffing problems, Qantas is asking its office employees to yet again assist and work the ground services ahead of the July holiday period, as it highlighted:
“As we have done in the past during busy periods, about 200 head office staff helped at airports over Easter undertaking tasks such as handing out water, queue combing and helping in the bag room. We are preparing to do the same over the July school holidays."
