Qantas engineers plan strike action over wage dispute

Travellers are being told to prepare for potential delays ahead of more industrial action planned by Qantas workers.

Thousands of travellers could be facing delays as Qantas engineers plan to continue striking as staff negotiate an ongoing wage dispute.

More than a thousand Qantas engineers will walk off the job during peak-hour flights on Monday morning, as NSW school holidays officially kick off.

Flights departing major airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth will be affected as workers participate in stoppages from 7am to 9am in each relevant time zone.

Qantas engineers are planning on walking off the job on Monday across the country. Picture: NewsWire / David Swift

The wage claim made by the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance – a union alliance comprising the AMWU, the AWU and the ETU – is for 5 per cent per year, and a 15 per cent first year payment to make up for three and a half years of wage freezes.

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy said staff had no option but to take industrial action after a breakdown in communication with Qantas management over bargaining for enterprise agreements, which expired in June.

“These workers hold special and valuable skills that take a decade to build up,” Mr Murphy said.

“They were essential workers during the pandemic, and made sacrifices so Qantas would survive.

“Qantas needs to pay that debt back. Respect your workers, value their skills, pay them what they’re worth.

“As our members say, there are no car parks when you’re 30,000 feet in the air, so these maintenance engineers need to get it right the first time.

“If Qantas values that safety, it needs to show it values its workers. This is what this dispute is all about.”

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy says workers deserve to be paid for their skills. Picture: Supplied / Facebook

However, a Qantas spokesman said travellers shouldn’t be badly impacted by the strike action.

“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,” he 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.”

It comes as the airline has been dealing with staff shortages since Thursday while strike action was carried out by union members.

It’s understood some flights were delayed during the strike action but only due to bad weather.

Qantas engineers, components maintenance workers and line maintenance engineers will continue to stop work on Monday, with the union warning the action will likely to have a significant and immediate impact on flights.

Qantas assures passengers delays are unlikely despite the strike action. Picture: NewsWire / David Swift

AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said staff hoped staff hope to find a solution soon with management.

“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.

“Engineers won’t accept seeing their wages lurch backward in real terms while executives get showered in cash.”

Originally published as Qantas engineers plan strike action over wage dispute