By Peter Hoskins
Enterprise reporter

Picture supply, Getty Photos

Picture caption, Airways have been compelled to put off hundreds of workers members through the pandemic

Australian airline Qantas has requested senior executives to work as baggage handlers for 3 months because it tries to deal with an acute labour scarcity.

The agency’s head of operations is on the lookout for a minimum of 100 volunteers to work at Sydney and Melbourne airports.

Duties embody loading and unloading luggage in addition to driving autos to maneuver baggage round airports.

Like a lot of the worldwide airline business, Qantas is struggling to renew its providers as borders reopen.

“The excessive ranges of winter flu and a Covid spike throughout the group, coupled with the continued tight labour market, make resourcing a problem throughout our business,” Qantas’ chief working officer Colin Hughes mentioned in an e mail shared with the BBC by the corporate.

“There isn’t any expectation that you’ll choose into this function on high of your full-time place,” Mr Hughes added.

The managers and executives have been requested to work within the baggage dealing with roles for 3 or 5 days every week, in shifts of both 4 or six hours a day.

The notice went on to say that candidates want to have the ability to transfer suitcases weighing as a lot as 32kg every.

“We have been clear that our operational efficiency has not been assembly our prospects’ expectations or the requirements that we anticipate of ourselves – and that we have been pulling out all stops to enhance our efficiency,” a Qantas spokesperson advised the BBC.

“As we’ve got achieved prior to now throughout busy durations, round 200 head workplace workers have helped at airports throughout peak journey durations since Easter.”

Qantas was amongst airways hit exhausting by the pandemic as nations closed their borders, grounding planes.

The business laid off hundreds of workers through the pandemic, a lot of which have been floor workers.

In November 2020, Qantas outsourced greater than 2,000 floor workers roles, on high of hundreds extra job cuts it had already introduced, in an effort to restrict its monetary losses.

Final month, the airline apologised after passengers complained of delays and lacking baggage.

Australia had among the many strictest Covid journey restrictions on this planet, together with for its personal residents, and solely started lifting the controls in November 2021.

As measures to sluggish the unfold of Covid-19 have eased all over the world, Qantas and different main airways have struggled to renew providers on the scale seen earlier than the pandemic.

UK airways and airports have additionally confronted workers shortages, resulting in delays and cancellations throughout vacation durations.

Shortages of bags handlers have additionally been contributing to baggage piling up in terminals.

Airports together with Heathrow have put a cap on passenger numbers over the summer season to assist handle demand, resulting in some airways suspending ticket gross sales for sure routes.

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Media caption, On board a continuous flight from London to Sydney

The post Qantas asks executives to work as baggage handlers for 3 months first appeared on Raw News.