Qantas ground workers are planning strike action next week in a dispute over pay, job security and the airline’s use of separate employment agreements. The Transport Workers’ Union said about 600 employees were expected to take part, while a further 100 workers at Australian air Express were due to strike on Wednesday and Thursday.
The employees mainly work in freight and the regional QantasLink operation. The union is seeking a single enterprise agreement covering staff at Qantas Ground Services, Australian air Express, Qantas Airlines Ltd and labour-hire groups, replacing the multiple agreements currently in place.
Qantas said negotiations over conditions for Qantas Ground Services employees were continuing and that it expected to meet the union on Friday. The airline said the agreement covered about 650 employees, although only around 400 were TWU members eligible to take industrial action.
Michael Kaine, the TWU’s national secretary, said workers had not taken the decision lightly. “Old habits die hard, and the same despicable Alan Joyce tactic of splintering the Qantas workforce has been dusted off by the new bosses who want to suppress wages and smash conditions,” he said.
The dispute centres on the structure of Qantas’s ground workforce, which was divided into separate groups during Alan Joyce’s leadership. More than 1,800 ground staff were unlawfully made redundant and replaced with outsourced workers during the Covid pandemic.
The union successfully challenged the dismissals. Qantas was fined $90 million by a federal judge in 2025 and agreed to pay $120 million to the affected employees. The airline has paid both sums.
Under chief executive Vanessa Hudson, Qantas has sought to improve its relationships with employees and customers. The airline said it remained committed to reaching an agreement with its ground services staff, including annual pay rises and more full-time opportunities.
“Our focus is on an agreement that addresses what employees have told us matters most, including pay and more full-time opportunities,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
Qantas said it had developed contingency plans to limit any disruption to customers and operations if industrial action went ahead.
The TWU has alleged that the historic division of the workforce has reduced experience on airport tarmacs and contributed to unsafe standards. It cited the death of a Qantas Freight worker last year as evidence of a deteriorating situation.
Qantas rejected the suggestion of worsening safety, saying there had been no increase in safety incidents since its ground-handling contracts were transferred to Swissport in 2020.
