Andrew Parker, Group Executive, Government, Industry, International, Sustainability, Qantas

The Qantas Group is pleased to endorse the Woolworths Group (Woolworths) for the Business Council of Australia’s Big Impact Award for their significant contribution to provide secondary employment opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the aviation industry and meant that, in March this year, the Qantas Group made the difficult decision to stand down the majority of our people.

As a longstanding partner of the Qantas Group, Woolworths stepped up and offered their support in several ways, including offering priority, short term employment for impacted Qantas Group employees.

Within a week, this suggestion became a reality and in the first 24 hours, 2,500 Qantas Group employees registered their interest to work with Woolworths. Within four weeks, 2,200 Qantas Group employees began working with Woolworths across their stores, distribution centres, and corporate office. As of November 2020, the Qantas Group still has 1,200 employees working at Woolworths.

The generosity that Woolworths continues to show our people has been extraordinary – with every member of the Woolworths team going above and beyond to make the transition as seamless as possible and provide our people with training, development and support. This initiative provided immediate relief to many our people at a critical time and has been our most successful secondary employment partnership.

Throughout the pandemic, the Woolworths Group has shown what it is to be a good corporate citizen – not just through its support for our employees, but for the support they’ve shown to the Australian community more generally.