Baggage containers have been damaged, firearms have been left unattended on carousels, and staff loading Qantas flights have been injured.
Swissport took over baggage handling for Qantas in December after the airline sacked 2,000 workers in an outsourcing move the federal court found was illegal. Qantas is appealing the decision that it did nothing illegal.
Qantas said the release of the memos was a cynical move by the union, and claimed that ground handler safety has improved.
The chaos at airports over the past several months has left Qantas passengers stranded overseas, resulted in 10% of bags atSydney's domestic terminal failing to make their flights, and damaged the airline's public image.
A worker at Swissport got their hand caught under a box.
Swissport said in a memo that the cargo item fell on top of the hold operator's finger.
A container being loaded on to a flight run by Qantas's budget subsidiary was torn open in another incident, according to a Swissport memo.
There were a couple of occurrences where a driver on the ramp made contact with a refueling hose, but no fuel spill had occurred.
If fuel is spilled on the tarmac, it can cause an ignition source and increase the risk of a serious event happening.
There were warnings to Swissport workers about firearms being left on the baggage carousel.
Employees were told in a memo that firearms have been off loaded onto the arrival's carousel instead of delivered to baggage services.
Since these items are left unattended on the arrival's carousel, anyone can pick them up and walk away.
The procedures for handling firearms were changed in July.
Swissport said in a safety memo that a set of passenger stairs were removed from the plane.
Staff breaking speed limits in baggage areas and leaving debris in the airfield are some of the issues raised in the memos.
Swissport acknowledged it was unable to meet demand for flights after the end of the Pandemic.
The general manager of the company that runs the airport said in a letter to employees that the human resource levels are not sustainable.
Swissport tried to increase the number of people at work by buying out annual leave and giving bonuses to workers who refer new employees.
The Transport Workers' Union wrote to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on Monday requesting a thorough safety investigation into Qantas' ground handling supply chain.
The secretary of the TWU said the situation was a disaster.
In the event of a catastrophic event, we would rather sound the alarm than not.
There have been a number of serious safety incidents due to the mass exodus of skilled workers and the lack of training.
Swissport has one of the strongest safety cultures in the industry and encourages staff to report any safety issues, according to a Swissport spokesman.
The TWU used internal messages to undermine the safety culture.
Qantas had an attack on the union.
When this work was done in-house, it had a higher rate of incidents.
Before this work was done, the TWU wasn't as concerned about these incidents. Since the outsourcing, the travelling public deserves to be cynical about that.
The strong safety culture that exists in Australian aviation is undermined by this type of behavior. We operate in one of the most tightly regulated industries in Australia and are subject to a lot of oversight.
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