Hundreds of Qantas ground handlers strike across the country calling for better pay and job security

Hundreds of Qantas ground handlers have walked off the job across the country, calling for better pay and job security.

Transcript

00:02Hundreds of ground crew working for Qantas as well as Qantas subsidiaries such as Qantas Link have walked off the

00:09job this morning for a 24 hour work stoppage and this is impacting Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth airports across

00:17the country.

00:18Now Qantas says it's not impacting any flight so customers shouldn't expect delays but here this morning at Sydney airport

00:26here at the domestic Qantas terminal there was a lot of people lining up to get their bags through but

00:33as you can see now it's thinned out quite a lot and it's pretty normal procedure down here at the

00:39Sydney airport.

00:40Workers are demanding better paying conditions and they say that because they're not getting the pay that they are demanding

00:47safety is not at the standard it should be at Sydney airport.

00:51Let's take a little listen to what the Transport Workers Union had to say earlier this morning.

00:56These workers are on minimum wage and in some cases less than minimum wage so they need to have job

01:02security, they often work over 40 hours a week but only are contracted for 15.

01:07So it makes it hard to get a mortgage, hard to get a loan.

01:10These workers want job security, they want consolidation and they want a decent pay rise, it keeps up with the

01:15cost of living.

01:16Separate to the Qantas strike there's also a strike of security screening staff here at Sydney airport.

01:22So the lines are pretty short right now while I'm here but earlier this morning some customers were waiting for

01:29up to half an hour to 40 minutes to get through security here.

01:32And that's because these stoppages are running for two two hour stoppages.

01:37They operated this morning between 7.30 and 9.30 and this evening they'll run from 6pm to 8pm.

01:44And that's a dispute between the staff that work there and the security contractor that runs that security screening here.

01:52They'll also be doing work stoppages on Monday on the first day of school holidays.

01:57That's the majority of those approximately sodpages on Wednesdays.