'Appalling': Qantas steels for union fight after outsourcing 2000 jobs

Qantas has forged ahead with plans to outsource 2000 baggage handling and cleaning jobs despite facing a court challenge over the redundancies, sparking swift condemnation from the Transport Workers Union. The airline on Thursday announced it had finalised outsourcing contracts with seven specialist ground handling and aircraft cleaning companies, including SwissPort and dnata. The announcement came amid a court case between the airline and the TWU over Qantas's outsourcing programs. The TWU launched legal action in the Federal Court last year to stop the outsourcing, but the case will not be heard until April. Qantas noted the union had not sought an interlocutory injunction to stop the outsourcing while the matter was heard by the court. TWU described Qantas's decision to push ahead with the outsourcing program while the matter was still before the court as "appalling". "Qantas workers are distraught and flabbergasted that the airline they've given years of their lives to has treated them as disposable cogs in the machine," TWU Assistant National Secretary Nick McIntosh said. "Their jobs are not redundant. Qantas still needs people to clean, load and push back their planes. These workers are being replaced because Qantas wants the work to be cheaper." The airline, which lost A$2.7b last year flagged its intention to outsource the jobs in 2020 as part of a large scale cost-cutting program. It revealed the names of its list of contractors in December. At the time the TWU hit out at the decision to outsource the jobs and Qantas's choice of SwissPort in particular.<br/>