Travellers are bracing for flight delays as Qantas engineers again walk out on the job over alleged pay disputes.
More than 1000 Qantas engineers — including maintenance engineers, who tow and marshall aircraft’s — are set to walk off the job from 7am until 9am on Monday as strike action remains ongoing since Thursday.
Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth airports are all expected to be affected by the action, which has been brought on by increased calls for better pay.
The The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance — which encompasses the AMWU, the AWU, and the ETU — have allegedly been in negotiations since April, with the most recent enterprise agreement having expired in June.
The union is pushing for a 15 per cent pay increase with a five per cent rise in subsequent years.
AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said engineers have been backed into a corner, and “won’t accept seeing their wages lurch backward in real terms while executives get showered in cash”.
“I know that there wouldn’t be a single engineer relishing the idea of delaying passengers,” Mr Farrow said.
“As a former aircraft engineer myself, I know there is real pride in getting people where they need to go safely. But management has backed them into a corner.
“Qantas management has absolutely smashed morale among engineers, and now we’ve reached a real fork in the road.”
AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy said the engineers were essential workers during the pandemic and made “sacrifices” for the good of the airline.
“Qantas needs to pay that debt back. Respect your workers, value their skills, pay them what they’re worth,” Mr Murphy said.
“If Qantas values that safety, it needs to show it values its workers. This is what this dispute is all about.”
A rally is set to be held outside Qantas Headquarters in Mascot, Sydney, at 7.30am on Monday.
It’s understood travellers haven’t been impacted by delays since the action began on Thursday, as of 6am Monday.
A Qantas spokesperson told NewsWire Monday’s action isn’t expected to impact customers.
“Over the past four days, we have seen no disruptions to our network as a result of the industrial action from some of our engineering workgroups,” the spokesperson said.
“Our teams have done a great job helping customers safely get to their destination over the busy weekend with school holidays and the footy finals.
“We have contingencies in place and don’t expect Monday’s planned strike action to have an impact on customers, or their travel plans.”
