‘Far from normal’: Airline contractor defends safety culture after leaked emails

A representative from Swissport argued the March memo demonstrates the company “has one of the strongest safety cultures in the industry”.

“It is therefore disappointing for the TWU to use internal messages to our team to undermine that safety culture. We encourage and support all reporting of possible safety issues, regardless of whether those concerns ultimately prove to have no foundation, so we can learn from any incident. That is indicative of a high-performing organisation, with a real commitment to safety,” the spokesperson said.

On March 4, a memo to staff warns of the risk of a fuel spill following a “couple of instances” of a driver coming into contact with a refuelling hose. “If fuel is spilled on the tarmac, it can create an ignition source and … can increase the risk of a serious event occurring,” the memo said.

In April, two cautions were issued to workers about the correct way to handle firearms before the process was overhauled in July.

“There has been an increase of incidents where firearms have been incorrectly offloaded onto the arrival’s carousel, rather than delivered to baggage services,” it said. “These are serious security breaches, since these items are left unattended on the arrival’s carousel, which is open to the general public, effectively allowing anyone to pick the item up and walk away.”

During the July school holidays- a travel period marred by cancellations and long queues – Swissport reminded staff not to take shortcuts on baggage procedures to mitigate time pressures. “We are aware that we do not currently have the resources available to service the volume of flights we are seeing,” the document said.

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Union national secretary Michael Kaine said “the memos clearly show the company is aware its understaffing issues are a safety concern, but Swissport management has refused to lift pay and conditions, provide more secure employment or treat workers better to recruit and retain staff”.

On Monday, 350 employees at grounds handling service Dnata- which services a number of major airlines including Etihad, Qantas and Emirates – voted to strike at Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide airport on Monday in an effort to push forward their stalled enterprise agreement negotiations.

Qantas outsourced international grounds handling in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Dnata in 2020 after axing about 1,700 jobs. The move was found to have breached the Fair Work Act by the Federal Court in July 2021, a verdict Qantas is challenging in the High Court.

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