Luggage was left in rooms for weeks after an airline sacked thousands of workers, whistleblower says
AP
- An ex-Qantas baggage handler told Nine's Today Show that luggage has been left in rooms for weeks.
- The whistleblower, who was sacked in the pandemic, said there has also been damage to planes.
- He told Today the travel chaos followed Qantas laying off staff during the pandemic.
A former Qantas worker has revealed how passengers' bags were left in rooms for weeks after the Australian airline fired thousands of staff in the pandemic.
The whistleblower, who remained anonymous, told the Nine network's Today show that he was one of the employees laid off following the outbreak of COVID-19.
Qantas let 2,000 workers go during the pandemic, according to the Transport Workers Union. The sackings have since triggered travel mayhem, the former baggage handler told the breakfast TV programme.
"You've got a skilled workforce that has just been totally sacked," he said in the interview.
Luggage has been left in rooms "for weeks at a time, waiting to be claimed," he told Nine. "There has been damage to planes."
He told Today that he enjoyed working at Qantas because of the camaraderie, but there was now no morale or incentive to work there.
Last month Qantas asked its office workers to help out at airports to cope with the surge in travel during school holidays in Australia.
However, the whistleblower told Today: "You can't just learn 30 years experience with a 20-minute security or safety online course. Bringing in a 50-year-old middle management person, that's a sedentary lifestyle for them and then they have to come in and throw 600 bags of 20-kilos plus for eight hours — that hurts young men."
—The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) July 13, 2022
Qantas didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The airline told Nine that outsourcing was not the problem, but rather COVID-19 had caused long delays across the aviation sector.
The whistleblower's comments come at a time when the airline industry grapples with a staffing shortage after the pandemic, which has brought travel chaos to airports and passengers.
Qantas is Australia's biggest and oldest airline, with about 37% of the domestic market, ahead of Virgin Australia. Qantas also owns the Jetstar budget carrier, which has about a 30% market share.
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