Qantas Hits Panic Button

Qantas workers at Melbourne Airport that have been spat on, punched and kicked have hailed a move by Qantas to trial distress buttons as a "small step" to combating passenger "air rage".

The airline has also agreed to introduce two security guards to intervene and protect employees from abusive and threatening passengers.

The new distress buttons will be placed at every counter and every location where staff deal with passengers; if the measures are effective Australian Services Union (ASU) members are expecting Qantas to roll out the system across all airports.

The move follows a union survey that found 96 per cent of airport staff had witnessed customer rage.

Airport staff have been battling the growing problem of air rage for some time, including participating in a worldwide campaign on the issue promoted by the International Transport Workers Federation and conducting a survey to measure the incidence of air rage on airport staff.

ASU delegates from around the country met with Qantas Airport Managers and Head of Airports, Grant Fenn, last Monday to discuss the incidence of air rage at airports around Australia.

The ASU has slammed an "argument" between State and Federal Police and the Australian Protective Services about who is responsible for bad passenger behaviour at airports.

"Ultimately we would like and encourage the Government to stop procrastinating and introduce legislation with harsh penalties to deal with offenders at Airports," says Linda White from the ASU. "We have to ask our governments and politicians how they would like it if there was violence in their workplace."

"The parliament is public place like an airport. Members of the public who threaten or assault our politicians in parliament have police swarming everywhere but at airports it appears we have a police free zone."

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:38 EST