Australia’s skydiving industry is bracing for major disruption today, including in Cairns, with tandem instructors employed by Experience Co striking.
The skydiving instructors are walking off the job and will rally at eight sites across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
The Australian Workers’ Union said the unprecedented action follows nearly 10 months of stalled negotiations for a first-ever enterprise agreement, talks which workers say have revealed a company willing to trade away the industry’s reputation for profit.
The union said despite delivering its strongest financial results since 2019, Experience Co, better known as Skydive Australia, has repeatedly pushed wage proposals that would send employees backwards.
It said some offers have included cuts of between $20,000 and $100,000 a year, while the latest proposal would slash the minimum annual wage for skydiving instructors from $57,000 to just $49,000 with earnings dependent on a very low “per jump” piece-rate.
Experience Co employs more than 1,000 people, including 130 skydivers, across some of Australia’s most iconic tourism destinations, including Noosa, Airlie Beach, Mission Beach and Cairns.
