Qantas staff are set to escalate industrial motion as aircraft-towing engineers put together to stroll off the job throughout peak-hour flights to safe higher pay.
Greater than 1000 engineers will stage walkouts on Monday as union members push for a 15 per cent pay rise within the first yr of a brand new enterprise settlement, adopted by 5 per cent will increase in subsequent years.
Flights between 7am and 9am at main airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will ‘doubtless be affected’, the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance mentioned in an announcement on Sunday.
Qantas mentioned a number of days of commercial motion had not affected passengers, together with those that travelled to the AFL grand remaining.
‘Over the previous 4 days, we have now seen no disruptions to our community on account of the economic motion from a few of our engineering workgroups,’ a Qantas spokesperson mentioned on Sunday.
‘We’ve contingencies in place and do not anticipate Monday’s deliberate strike motion to have an effect on prospects, or their journey plans.’
The alliance includes staff represented by the Australian Staff Union, Australian Manufacturing Staff Union and Electrical Trades Union.
Qantas mentioned a number of days of commercial motion had not affected passengers
AWU nationwide secretary Paul Farrow mentioned the union didn’t need to delay passengers however had no selection.
‘I do know that there would not be a single engineer relishing the thought of delaying passengers,’ he mentioned.
‘As a former plane engineer myself, I do know there may be actual pleasure in getting individuals the place they should go safely. However administration has backed them right into a nook.’
About 1100 plane upkeep staff, which is about 45 per cent of the airline’s engineers, are lined by the settlement below negotiation.
Staff have been in negotiations since April, whereas their enterprise settlement expired on the finish of June.
Qantas made a internet revenue of $1.25 billion within the 2023/24 monetary yr, down 28 per cent from the earlier yr.
