by More than 1,000 Qantas engineers across Australia will walk out of their jobs in an industrial action they say could start the week with travel chaos at peak times, but the airline says contingencies have been put in place and it expects no disruptions to travel.
Flights between 7am and 9am in three time zones on Monday morning will be affected in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
The months-long dispute between Qantas management and line maintenance engineers will see the latter go on strike for two hours.
Line maintenance engineers tow and arrange aircraft on the tarmac, and perform turnaround checks on aircraft on the ground to clear them for takeoff.
Qantas engineers began industrial action on Thursday as engine and component maintenance workers stopped work.
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said management had “backed them into a corner”.
“As a former aircraft engineer, I know there is real pride in getting people there safely,” he said, adding that “no engineer would appreciate the idea of delaying passengers.”
“[But] Qantas management has absolutely destroyed morale among engineers, and now we have reached a real fork in the road. Engineers will not accept seeing their wages decline in real terms while managers are showered with cash.”
Last month, the Qantas board cut former CEO Alan Joyce’s final pay package by $9.26 million, cutting his final total income of $21.4 million for 2022-2023 by almost half.
Qantas engineers are represented by a trade union alliance consisting of the AMWU, the AWU and the ETU. The workers have been in negotiations since April as their enterprise agreement expired at the end of June.
The engineering alliance wants a 5% annual pay increase, along with a 15% payment for the first year, to compensate for what they say has been a three-and-a-half year freeze on wages.
The standout engineers will hold meetings in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
Qantas has been notified of protected industrial action which will see a series of work stoppages at airports across Australia from Thursday 26 September.
A spokesperson said the airline has “faced unforeseen circumstances and does not expect Monday’s planned strike action to impact customers or their travel plans”.
“Over the last four days we have seen no disruptions to our network as a result of industrial action by some of our technical working groups.
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“Our teams did a great job helping customers reach their destinations safely during the busy school holiday weekend and the football finals.”
The airline said there have been no disruptions or cancellations caused by industrial action since Thursday. The wild weather caused delays and cancellations for all airlines this weekend.
Before the announcement of the second tranche of industrial action on Monday morning, a spokesperson said progress was being made in wage negotiations.
“We have held a series of meetings with the unions and made progress on a number of issues.
“We want to reach an agreement that includes wage increases and lifestyle benefits for our people.”
Qantas made a profit of $1.25 billion in the 2023-2024 financial year, down 28.3% on the previous twelve months.
CEO Vanessa Hudson previously said the airline has deliberately reduced its margins on international travel to balance the needs of shareholders, employees and customers.
