Qantas engineers prepare to strike over push for 12 per cent pay rise

Industrial action is looming at Qantas and Jetstar as engineers push for a 12 per cent pay rise — with travellers expected to be impacted.

More than 1000 Qantas, Jetstar and Network Aviation engineers are preparing to vote on strike action as they push for a 12 per cent pay rise.

The demand has led to a breakdown of enterprise bargaining talks between the airlines and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.

As a result, members will be asked to vote next week in a ballot posing two options, including overtime bans and 12-hour stoppages.

ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said many members had not had a pay rise for four years, and believed they were getting nowhere in negotiations.

“The airline has not taken negotiations seriously,” said Mr Purvinas.

“There have been years of meetings and no progress. The overpaid CEO (Alan Joyce) expects all workers to freeze their wages as the board tucks away bonus and share options for Qantas executives.”

Qantas, Jetstar and Network Aviation engineers are considering industrial action.

He said the 12 per cent equated to a modest rise of 3 per cent a year since 2018, which was at the “lower end of the Reserve Bank’s expected wage outcome”.

Any industrial action would likely occur in the second half of August or early September.

ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas is confident members will vote in favour of industrial action at Qantas, Jetstar and Network Aviation.

“We won’t need to target holiday periods, Qantas seem to be doing a good enough job of ruining holidays without our assistance,” Mr Purvinas said.

A Qantas Group spokesman said they were disappointed ALAEA had taken this step towards industrial action, which he called “completely unnecessary”.

“We’ve been negotiating in good faith on the agreements,” he said.

“Negotiations for Jetstar and Network Aviation’s engineers agreements recommenced in May, so it is completely unreasonable to take this step given we’re still early in the process.”

Network Aviation is a Perth-based airline owned by Qantas that runs air charter services in support of Western Australia’s fly-in, fly-out mining operations.

The Qantas Group spokesman said the claim for a 12 per cent pay rise was something the group simply could not afford, and was well above wage increases for other employees of the airline.

“With the industry still recovering from the impact of the pandemic, the last thing it needs is the threat of industrial action.”

Contingency plans were in place at all airlines to minimise any disruption should the union proceed with any strikes, the spokesman added.

In 2011, Qantas engineers were among three groups of workers to undertake industrial action along with pilots and ground handling staff.

The airline engineers are pushing for a 12 per cent pay rise. Picture: Supplied

In response, Mr Joyce made the stunning decision to ground the airline and lockout workers, in order to break the deadlock with unions.

There was unlikely to be any repeat of that upheaval, with pilots recently agreeing to a new enterprise deal and the ground handling workforce outsourced to companies like Menzies and Swissport.

Mr Purvinas said he was confident members would vote in favour of industrial action in the ballot.

“They’ve all suffered through Covid, particularly with the airline being so woefully mismanaged. When you work under the current conditions you expect to be remunerated fairly,” he said.

“Our members at Qantas have not received a wage increase in four years. The airline wage freeze offer is insulting to engineers who have borne the brunt of Covid stand downs and redundancies.”

In an effort to retain employees in a tight labour market, Qantas recently promised a one-off boost payment of $5000 and the promise of 1000 shares currently worth $4500 in August 2023.

Qantas was expected to post another significant annual loss next month, after foregoing more than $23bn worth of revenue over the course of the pandemic.

Originally published as Qantas engineers prepare to strike over push for 12 per cent pay rise