Qantas engineers walked off the job today at six major airports, as part of a major strike action over pay negotiations.
Key Takeaways
- More than 1,000 Qantas engineers walked off the job today at six major airports between 7am and 9am – peak flight time – as part of ongoing strike action.
- The Qantas Engineers Alliance say they’ve experienced years of wage freezes, and are calling for a wage claim of 5% per year, and a 15% first year payment to make up for 3.5 years of freezes.
- Qantas says contingencies were put in place, which meant there were no delays or cancellations to flights this morning as a result of the action.
- Qantas also says since the industrial action began on Thursday, there has been no impact to customers as a result. Though, it claims weather has caused some delays and cancellations for all airlines over this period.
Key background
The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance, which is a union alliance comprising the AMQU, AWU and ETU, allege that its members’ skills have been devalued by the airline due to wage freezes. The Alliance is seeking a wage claim for 5% per year, and 15% payment to make up for 3.5 years of wage freezes.
“Nothing has changed at Qantas – their workers feel undervalued, underpaid and underappreciated,” Steve Murphy, AMWU National Secretary. “Our highly skilled members deserve fair wages for the incredible work they do to keep us all safe in the air.”
As a result, hundreds of engineers from across the country began taking strike action last Thursday, 26 September. Today, they walked off the job 7am – 9am. A Qantas spokesperson said the airline had put contingencies in place, which meant there were no delays or cancellations to flights this morning as a result of the industrial action.
“We have a number of contingency plans for the remainder of this week’s planed strike action and don’t expect it to impact customers,” a spokesperson for the airline said.
Crucial quote
“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,” Paul Farrow, AWU National Secretary said. “At some point, people are going to say enough is enough.”
Big number
$1.25 billion. That was Qantas Group’s total statutory profit after tax for FY24. Its underlying profit before tax was $2.08 billion.
That’s down about 28% year-on-year: in FY23, the company posted statutory profits after tax of $1.74 billion, and underlying profits before tax of $2.47 billion. That was its first full-year statutory profit after tax since pre-COVID, which it largely attributed to its COVID recovery plan and robust travel demand.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
