Thousands of travelers could face delays as Qantas engineers plan to continue striking while staff negotiate an ongoing pay dispute.
More than a thousand Qantas engineers will walk off the job during peak hour flights on Monday morning when the school holidays officially begin in New South Wales.
Flights departing from major airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will be affected as workers take part in walkouts from 7am to 9am in each relevant time zone.
The pay claim put forward by the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance – a union alliance comprising the AMWU, AWU and ETU – is for 5 per cent a year and a 15 per cent payment in the first year to compensate for three and a half years of work . salary freezes.
AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said staff had no choice but to go on strike after a breakdown in communication with Qantas management over negotiating enterprise agreements, which expired in June.
“These workers have special and valuable skills that take a decade to develop,” Mr. Murphy said.
‘They were essential workers during the pandemic and made sacrifices for Qantas to survive.
‘Qantas needs to pay that debt. Respect your workers, value their skills, pay them what they are worth.
More than a thousand Qantas engineers will stop working during peak hour flights on Monday morning
‘As our members say, there’s no parking when you’re at 30,000 feet, so these maintenance engineers have to get it right the first time.
‘If Qantas values that safety, it must show that it values its workers. “This is what this dispute is about.”
However, a Qantas spokesperson said travelers should not be seriously affected by the strike.
“Over the past four days, we have seen no disruptions to our network as a result of industrial action by some of our engineering working groups,” he said.
‘Our teams have done a great job helping customers get to their destination safely over the busy weekend with school holidays and football finals.
“We have contingencies in place and do not expect the strike planned for Monday to have an impact on customers or their travel plans.”
It comes as the airline has been grappling with staff shortages since Thursday as union members carried out a strike.
It is understood that some flights were delayed during the strike, but only due to bad weather.
Qantas engineers, component maintenance workers and line maintenance engineers will continue to walk away from work on Monday, with the union warning the action will likely have a significant and immediate impact on flights.
More than a thousand Qantas engineers will walk off the job during peak-hour flights on Monday morning, when the school holidays officially begin in New South Wales.
AWU national secretary Paul Farrow said staff hoped to find a solution with management soon.
“I know there wouldn’t be a single engineer excited about delaying passengers,” Mr Farrow said.
‘As a former aeronautical engineer, I know there is real pride in getting people where they need to go safely.
But management has cornered them.
‘Qantas management has absolutely destroyed morale among engineers and we have now reached a real fork in the road.
“Engineers will not accept their salaries falling in real terms while executives are showered with cash.”
