Fines given to four baggage handling companies at Schiphol for poor working conditions

The Netherlands Labour Authority has fined four baggage handling companies at Schiphol over a million euros for the continuous poor working environment at the airport. The authority had threatened to do this earlier this year and has now collected the majority of the fines.

One of the things that the labour authority is not happy about is the way lifting aids are being used at Schiphol. The labour authority had already issued fines for this in the past.

The authority made the demand at the beginning of last year that the entire baggage handling process must be automated or mechanized. The baggage handling companies were ordered to take measures in anticipation of this, like rotating heavy lifting jobs amongst employees. “The authority is seeing progress, but the healthy working environment does not meet the demands,” a message on the website reads.

According to the authority, the problems are occurring during the “loading and unloading of passenger baggage in the airport basements and at the aircraft on the aprons.” The labour authority has also stated that more fines can be issued if the working conditions do not improve.

Schiphol responded to the news by saying that airlines, baggage handlers, and the airport have a collective responsibility to ensure that the workplace is safe. “As the Netherlands Labour Authority has emphasized, baggage handlers can reduce physical taxation by ensuring that the lifting aids can be used correctly, and by having employees perform more varied tasks or hiring more people. We are in structural discussions about this with airlines and handlers."