Australian porters forcibly throw passengers' luggage (photo: rexross79)
Australian porters received a stern warning from the CEO of the ground handling company where they are employed, after a video taken during their work records them forcibly throwing and "abusing" passengers' luggage.
After the video was distributed, the Australian airline Qantas, together with the country's largest ground handling company, opened Swissport, in what was defined as an "urgent investigation" of the matter.
The video, which was apparently filmed at the airport of the city of Melbourne and distributed on Tiktok, shows three porters as they throw, kick, punch and slam passengers' luggage onto a conveyor belt. Some of the bags were thrown with such force that who fell to the opposite side of the conveyor belt. One of them is even seen laughing, while his colleague lifts a suitcase above his head, and slams it down with great force. In another case, one of the three porters is seen throwing a bag a considerable distance along the conveyor belt, even though the conveyor belt is right in front of him.
More in Walla!
Step by step: what to do when the suitcase gets lost at the airport?
Flight attendant Bloom with the most important tip on how not to lose a suitcase
The extraordinary warning to flight attendants and pilots: do not send luggage on the plane
The Netflix of the medical world can save your life
Kicking, punching and slamming passengers' luggage onto a conveyor belt.
The Australian porters (photo: screenshot, Tiktok)
were fired immediately
A spokesman for Qantas said the incident was "totally unacceptable" and confirmed that an urgent investigation was underway.
The airline uses Swissport's ground services at Melbourne Airport.
Meanwhile, the three employees who were photographed were fired immediately, although the investigation into the matter is still ongoing.
"The actions of the team members (seen) in the video appear to be at odds with our service level standards. As a result, the team in question has been dismissed," said Swissport CEO Brad Moore. "Its 3,000 employees work hard to ensure these standards are maintained.
When these standards are breached by a small group of people, we will take action.
The behaviors in the video disappointed us all."
"The actions of the team members in the video are against our service level standards, and he has been fired" (Photo: screenshot, Tiktok)
The difficult year for the Australian airline
The New York Post reports that the video that has been circulating around the web comes amid the fact that it has been a turbulent and challenging year for Australia's national airline, which has experienced flight delays, flight cancellations and other high-profile incidents of loss of passenger baggage.
Some of the cases even appeared in an investigation by an Australian news company.
Naturally, many expressed shock at the case on social media as well.
"It's sad, but I don't really expect anything better from Qantas," wrote one commenter.
"Is this a competition of who can destroy suitcases the fastest?"
pondered another.
Many argued that those involved should be fired immediately, due to the disrespect for passengers' property.
"I used to work in porters of such loads and I never saw anything like this. If I had seen it - I would not have hesitated and immediately contacted the labor inspector," commented another.
tourism
news
Tags
suitcases
conveyor
Australia
Airport
