iscover
Qantas engineering workers have begun industrial action, seeking pay rises to make up for recent wage freezes.
Staff from the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance, which comprises the AMWU, the AWU, and the ETU, downed tools in Melbourne on Thursday, with more strikes planned at other major airports over the next two weeks. The alliance warns it is “highly likely to affect Qantas flights in all major capitals”.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
The unions say they are seeking a 5 per cent pay rise per year, with 15 per cent in the first year to account for three and a half years of wage freezes. Affected workers are members of the Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs) work groups, with agreements covering around 1,100 out of 2,500 engineers; these agreements expired at the end of June.
“Nothing has changed at Qantas — their workers feel undervalued, underpaid and underappreciated,” said AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy.
“If you’ve had a bad Qantas experience, well that’s nothing compared to how Qantas makes their workers feel every day.
“Our highly skilled members deserve fair wages for the incredible work they do to keep us all safe in the air.”
According to the alliance, wages have gone backwards “significantly” over the past several years while management “boasted of record profits” and announced “eye-watering executive bonuses”.
AWU national secretary Paul Farrow said the engineers do not “take industrial action lightly”, but their “hand has been forced because Qantas management is refusing to countenance a fair deal”.
“You can’t expect to announce billions in profits and executive bonuses and simultaneously tell the engineers who keep your planes safe to take less and less home to their families. At some point people are going to say ‘enough’,” Farrow said.
ETU national secretary Michael Wright added that the engineers’ skills are “in demand in a variety of sectors”.
“Qantas has traditionally attracted the very best and brightest, and they are why it has the amazing safety record it has today,” Wright said.
“But if management insists on treating its engineers like garbage, then it’s pretty obvious to see what’s going to happen.
“Already we are seeing Qantas having to offshore maintenance because they can’t retain enough quality engineers in Australia. And we know Qantas has been struggling to attract new skilled engineers who are flocking to other employers.”
Qantas says it has been notified of the industrial action, which it expects to continue into at least next week.
“We’re putting contingencies in place and don’t currently expect this industrial action to have an impact on customers,” a spokesperson said.
“We’ve held a series of meetings with the unions and made progress on a number of items. We want to reach an agreement that includes pay rises and ensures we have a sustainable business.”
