Urgent warning thousands of Aussies to be hit with flight delays at all major airports on Monday

Thousands of travelers could face delays as Qantas engineers plan to continue striking while staff negotiate an ongoing pay dispute.

More than a thousand Qantas engineers will walk off the job during peak hours on Monday morning as the school holidays officially start in NSW.

Flights departing from major airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will be affected as workers participate in disruptions from 7am to 9am in each relevant time zone.

The wage claim of the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance – a trade union alliance made up of the AMWU, the AWU and the ETU – is 5 percent per annum, with a payment of 15 percent in the first year to compensate for three and a half years of work. wages freeze.

AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said staff had no choice but to take industrial action after a breakdown in communication with Qantas management over company agreement negotiations, which ended in June.

“These employees have special and valuable skills that take a decade to build,” Murphy said.

“They were essential workers during the pandemic and made sacrifices so that Qantas would survive.

“Qantas needs to repay that debt. Respect your employees, value their skills, pay them what they’re worth.

More than a thousand Qantas technicians will leave their jobs during peak flights on Monday morning

“As our members say, there are no parking spots when you’re 30,000 feet in the air, so these maintenance technicians have to get it right the first time.

‘If Qantas values ​​safety, it must show that it values ​​its employees. This is what this dispute is about.”

However, a Qantas spokesperson said travelers should not suffer any serious consequences from the strike action.

“Over the last four days we have not seen any disruptions to our network as a result of industrial action by some of our technical working groups,” he said.

“Our teams did a great job helping customers reach their destinations safely during the busy school holiday weekend and the football finals.

“We have taken emergency measures and do not expect Monday’s planned strike action to impact customers or their travel plans.”

It comes as the airline has faced staff shortages since Thursday amid strike action by union members.

It is understood that some flights have been delayed during the strike action, but only due to bad weather.

Qantas engineers, component maintenance workers and line maintenance engineers will continue to stop work on Monday, with the union warning the action is likely to have a significant and immediate impact on flights.

More than a thousand Qantas engineers will walk off the job during peak hours on Monday morning as the NSW school holidays officially start

AWU national secretary Paul Farrow said staff hoped staff would find a solution with management quickly.

“I know there wouldn’t be a single engineer who would like the idea of ​​slowing down passengers,” Mr Farrow said.

“As a former aircraft engineer, I know there’s real pride in getting people there safely.

‘But management has backed them into a corner.

‘Qantas management has absolutely destroyed morale among engineers, and now we have reached a real fork in the road.

“Engineers will not accept seeing their wages decline in real terms while managers are showered with cash.”