500 signatures reached
To: Canberra Airport Group CEO Stephen Byron
There is no place for MSS in Airport Security
The Canberra Airport Group decision makers need to intervene in the bungled contract transition of its Airport Security Officers.
The workers who keep airports running smoothly and safely were told one week before Christmas that they would be transitioning from their current employer (Certis) to the notoriously exploitative and anti-worker MSS on 1 March 2025.
MSS have refused to uphold the conditions and clauses in the workers' Agreement and many current security officers do not know whether or not they'll have jobs at the end of February in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
The airport has a responsibility not just to the workers, but to the traveling public, to properly scrutinise the contractors they allow to operate in high security risk areas of the airport and MSS does not pass the pub test in regards to this.
The workers who keep airports running smoothly and safely were told one week before Christmas that they would be transitioning from their current employer (Certis) to the notoriously exploitative and anti-worker MSS on 1 March 2025.
MSS have refused to uphold the conditions and clauses in the workers' Agreement and many current security officers do not know whether or not they'll have jobs at the end of February in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
The airport has a responsibility not just to the workers, but to the traveling public, to properly scrutinise the contractors they allow to operate in high security risk areas of the airport and MSS does not pass the pub test in regards to this.
Why is this important?
What is being cut?
o Sick leave balances: Sick leave accruals have been cut to zero!
o Income Protection Insurance: MSS Security is cutting this protection entirely!
o Workplace rights and protections: MSS Security is cutting up the rights of union delegates, while also foreshadowing that there are even more cuts to conditions on the way…
In addition to promising the above cuts, MSS Security is already looking to tear up unspecified conditions in the future too:
| “There are clauses in the [current] agreement which we do not want excluded at this point, but which we would not want carried over in their ‘current form’ to any future agreement. ”
| MSS Security – People and Culture Manager for ACT, QLD & Defence - 17/01/2025
One such aviation security officer who hasn't yet been offered a job, is Shona, a 12-year veteran who was praised for her efforts in thwarting a gunman in the airport in 2022.
"I've gone through contract transitions before, but they've been a lot easier," she said.
"Lots of us are sitting by the phone waiting to be called and we're getting very frustrated and stressed, worrying about what we're going to do."
"Many are thinking about leaving, which would leave the airport very short as it takes 3 - 4 months to get a worker up-to-speed. So it's a huge security risk to the airport to allow MSS to operate this way."
"I've gone through contract transitions before, but they've been a lot easier," she said.
"Lots of us are sitting by the phone waiting to be called and we're getting very frustrated and stressed, worrying about what we're going to do."
"Many are thinking about leaving, which would leave the airport very short as it takes 3 - 4 months to get a worker up-to-speed. So it's a huge security risk to the airport to allow MSS to operate this way."