Schiphol starts renovating baggage basements amid physical labor complaints

Schiphol will soon start “renewing, renovating, and further innovating” its baggage basements to make work easier for baggage handlers, the airport announced on Friday. The announcement came in the same week that NOS and Nieuwsuur revealed that the Labor Inspectorate had not intervened at Schiphol’s baggage basements in 12 years, despite several complaints about too heavy lifting leaving handlers with physical problems.

“Schiphol is working on improving the quality of work at the airport,” the airport said on Friday. “Innovative automation and artificial intelligence solutions will provide more support to baggage employees in the future.” The airport mentioned updating existing robots in the baggage basement, producing machines to unload suitcases, and developing autonomous vehicles to move carts and containers in the baggage basements.

The airport has over 145,000 square meters of baggage systems - about the size of 29 football pitches - divided across various areas. “Several of these areas will need to be renovated over the coming years.” To guarantee operational continuity, the first step is constructing a new baggage basement to take over some of the load while other parts are shut down for renovation.

Schiphol will build the new baggage basement on the site where a possible new terminal will be constructed, though the airport stressed that it has not yet made any final decisions about this terminal. The baggage basement will be designed in such a way that a new terminal can be built on top of its roof but will function independently.

“With the construction of the new baggage basement and the renovation of the existing basement, Schiphol is ensuring that, in addition to operational continuity, the working conditions of baggage employees are further improved.”

NOS and Nieuwsuur revealed that baggage handlers at Schiphol often struggle with health problems and injuries due to the physically demanding work they do. According to the broadcaster, the mandatory lifting aids at the airport are often broken, if they are present at all. The Labor Inspectorate hadn’t inspected the baggage basements in 12 years, despite at least six complaints about the physically demanding work since 2015.