Image: Photo by Josh Withers on Unsplash
Jetstar passengers travelling through several major Australian airports over the next two days could find themselves receiving an unexpected bonus at the check-in counter.
Around 1,000 Jetstar customer service workers are taking protected industrial action from Wednesday 23 September — but rather than walking off the job and disrupting flights, participating staff will continue helping passengers while refusing to collect a range of additional fees on Jetstar's behalf.
That includes fees for things such as excess baggage, seat changes, late fees and other sales-related transactions.
In other words, it's industrial action that some passengers may actually be rather pleased to encounter.
Which Jetstar fees will be waived?
The Australian Services Union says participating members will either waive or record as $0 a range of sales-related charges that would ordinarily be collected from passengers.
Reported examples include:
- excess baggage charges
- seat change fees
- late fees
- other sales-related transactions handled by participating staff.
Workers will otherwise continue assisting passengers as normal. Jetstar has said it does not expect the action to disrupt its flight operations.
When is the Jetstar industrial action happening?
The action is scheduled to begin at 12:01am on Wednesday 23 September and continue until midnight on Thursday 24 September 2026.
Participating ASU members are working at:
- Sydney Airport
- Melbourne Airport
- Brisbane Airport
- Avalon Airport
- Cairns Airport
- Adelaide Airport
- Gold Coast Airport.
The timing is significant.
The action coincides with the first week of the Victorian and Queensland school holidays and comes immediately before the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne — traditionally an extremely busy period for domestic air travel.
Rather than trying to inconvenience passengers during that busy period, the union's strategy is effectively to hit Jetstar's ancillary revenue instead.
Don't deliberately turn up with an overweight bag
Before anyone starts enthusiastically adding another three pairs of shoes to their suitcase, there's an important catch.
This doesn't mean every Jetstar fee will automatically be waived for every passenger over the next two days.
The industrial action applies to participating ASU members. Jetstar also uses different staffing arrangements at different airports and terminals, so passengers shouldn't assume the person dealing with their booking or baggage will necessarily be participating in the action.
Jetstar's normal baggage rules and fees remain in place. Its own baggage guidance continues to advise passengers to purchase additional baggage before arriving at the airport to avoid higher airport charges.
So consider a waived charge an unexpected bonus — not permission to deliberately arrive at the airport with an overweight suitcase.
Image: Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash
Why are Jetstar workers taking industrial action?
The dispute centres on wages and employment conditions for Jetstar airport operations employees.
The ASU has been negotiating a new enterprise agreement covering airport workers including customer service staff, with workers seeking improved wages, penalty rates, leave provisions and job security.
The dispute has been developing for some time.
In August, the ABC reported that around 900 Jetstar airport operations workers covered by the negotiations were effectively being paid award rates after annual increases to the relevant award overtook rates contained in their expired enterprise agreement.
The union has also argued that employees performing comparable roles elsewhere within the Qantas Group can receive higher rates of pay.
A protected-action ballot involving the ASU and Jetstar was subsequently recorded by the Fair Work Commission on 8 September.
Jetstar says it has made a fair offer
Jetstar says negotiations with the union are continuing.
The airline told media it had put forward what it described as a comprehensive and fair offer including pay increases, improved penalty payments and allowances, and greater rostering flexibility.
Jetstar says the proposed agreement would allow it to improve employee conditions while continuing to invest in its fleet and network and maintain low fares amid higher fuel costs.
The ASU argues the offer doesn't go far enough.
ASU national assistant secretary Scott Cowen said members would continue looking after passengers but would stop collecting additional fees until the airline improved its offer.
An unusual kind of airline industrial action
For travellers, this is a rather different prospect from the industrial action normally associated with airports.
Instead of cancelled flights, lengthy delays or empty check-in counters, passengers should largely see business as usual.
The financial impact is instead aimed directly at the airline.
That's particularly notable for Jetstar, where additional products and fees form an important part of its low-cost airline model.
And given the action is taking place during school holidays and immediately before one of Australia's biggest sporting weekends, there could be plenty of passengers passing through those airport counters.
For some of them, industrial action might result in the rather unusual experience of arriving at a Jetstar counter expecting to pay an extra fee — and being told they don't have to.
Just don't pack the extra shoes on purpose.
