Qantas strike threat will ground planes

SMH

GROUNDED? Engineering industrial action could cause headaches for Qantas travellers.

Relevant offers

National business

Hotchin: 'Nothing in it for me' Allied dangles carrot for investors Rich pickings for taxman as rich pay up Tainted directors not wanted Are repo men toeing the line? Advisers to dob in dodgy deals under new code Life returns to troubled debt markets A costly exercise in hypocrisy Kiwi company flush with success New town home sales turn a corner

Qantas passengers face disruptions in coming weeks after the airline's professional engineers voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action for the first time in its history.

The stand-off over conditions and pay is the first real test of the relationship between the new management and its heavily unionised workforce.

Professional engineers number only about 130 at Qantas, but they are crucial to the engineering workforce because they must approve any significant maintenance before aircraft are permitted to fly. Strike action could force Qantas to ground planes.

Members of their union, the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, will meet today in Sydney and Melbourne to decide what action to take. Yesterday 98 per cent of the professional engineers voted for industrial action, after talks with the company over the past seven months had failed to resolve their differences.

The union's director, Catherine Bolger, said the dispute centred on the out-of-hours work required to maintain the airline's fleet and demand for pay parity with other workers.

She cited occasions where, in a 24-hour period, some senior engineers had to approve aircraft maintenance tasks with less than five hours' sleep between jobs.