Almost 500 Qantas line maintenance engineers will be walking off the job for 24 hours from Friday 13 December across most major capital cities, as frustrated workers reach a stalemate with the airline over their wage dispute, according to the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance. Highly skilled engineers will be undertaking a full day stoppage from 3:30am local time on Friday morning until 7:30am local time Saturday morning. Stoppages will take place at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The strike action will likely have an immediate impact as line maintenance workers are responsible for towing and marshalling aircraft.
The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance (QEA) – made of members from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) – have collectively signalled further industrial actions to come after the major airline reneged on its commitment to consider a proposal put forward by Alliance members. The stoppages come after a six-week break in protected industrial action, after the Alliance paused strike action to show their commitment to reaching an agreement during negotiations. Workers are now forced to take action after the airline again refused to negotiate.
Workers are preparing for increasing industrial action in the coming weeks if Qantas refuses to negotiate, with a further stoppage planned for Friday 20 December. Negotiations for the new EA – which expired in June – first began in April. The Alliance has put forward a wage claim of 5 percent per year, with a 15 percent first-year increase to compensate for 3.5 years of wage freezes and to raise wages in line with industry standards.
Although Alliance Unions reduced their claims, Qantas refused to budge on their initial offer of 3 percent per year over the course of three years. Last week, Alliance Unions members also voted to expand industrial action if Qantas continues to refuse to negotiate, voting overwhelmingly in favour of approximately 40 partial work bans which would include bans on the towing and docking of aircraft, overtime, marshalling, servicing components, and issuing aircraft parts from stores.
Steve Murphy, AMWU National Secretary, said: “Workers were asked by Qantas in good faith to not take industrial action as a commitment to resolve bargaining. For six weeks, Qantas has shown they cannot live up to their own values – they lied. Aircraft Maintenance Workers are feeling disrespected by the behaviour of Qantas and we all know how that feels. Workers have no other choice now, that during the holiday period, they will be taking industrial action to bring Qantas back to the bargaining table. Qantas is to blame if there’s any disruption to commuters over the holiday period. They have had six weeks to simply do what they said they would.”
Paul Farrow, AWU National Secretary, said: “Engineers are confused about the persistent disrespect from their employer. Alan Joyce’s departure was meant to mean a new era for Qantas management, but this is just the same old playbook: treat skilled employees as if they’re dispensable and hope that customers don’t notice. Qantas still means something to our members. They take their responsibilities incredibly seriously. They want to preserve Qantas’s enviable historic reputation for safety. But that’s going to be hard to do long-term when they receive only disdain from Qantas management.”
Michael Wright , ETU National Secretary, said: “These highly skilled workers have been bargaining in good faith with Qantas. They have suffered pay freezes during Covid and are only asking for the fair pay they deserve. Qantas only has the safety record it does because of these workers. Qantas could end this right now and come to the table with a fair pay offer. It’s disgraceful that Qantas is not respecting these workers and the crucial work they do.”
In a statement, Qantas said: “Qantas has put a number of contingencies in place to ensure customers get on their way despite industrial action by some of its Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs). Qantas has been notified by the Alliance Unions of work stoppages on 13 and 20 December 2024. Qantas is putting a number of plans in place and expects to have the resources available to cover all planned services. Passengers should head to the airport as they normally would. As always, unplanned maintenance issues, weather, or other events may impact operations on the day.
“Qantas AMEs, which are only a part of the overall engineering workforce, have taken various forms of industrial action since late September as part of ongoing enterprise agreement negotiations. Qantas has been able to manage the impact of this to date and they have previously not resulted in any delays or cancellations for customers. Around 160 AMEs are rostered on during Friday’s industrial action and only members of the Alliance unions can take industrial action. As it prepares for the peak summer period, Qantas also has additional aircraft and crew on standby to help ensure a safe and smooth travel experience for all of its customers over the coming weeks. This includes a number of aircraft on standby across Qantas and Jetstar to help recover customers in the event of seasonal weather or other impacts, including the return of a Qantas Airbus A380 from late December.”
A Qantas spokesperson also said: “Our teams are working hard to ensure that this industrial action has minimal impact on customers’ holiday plans and we have put a number of contingencies in place and extra resourcing on the ground to ensure our customers get away as planned. As always at this time of year our aircraft are full and airports are busy so we urge customers to give themselves more time to get through security and get to their aircraft. We’re offering our engineers a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression that will enable them to earn significantly more over the next few years.”
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