Qantas cancels flights in three states
Qantas and its engineers are a long way from finding an end to their crippling industrial dispute, the airline says, with six Qantas flights from Sydney and Melbourne were cancelled Monday morning as engineers walked off the job in three states as reported by AAP.
The airline has been forced to cancel another 18 flights on Tuesday.
Engineers were striking for up to four hours at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns airports over a pay dispute.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) is demanding a five per cent increase for engineers, but the national carrier has refused to budge from its offer of a three per cent pay rise.
Qantas executive general manager for people, Kevin Brown, said the two parties were a long way from resolving the long-running dispute.
“I don’t think that there is a settlement at hand here, for two reasons,” Mr Brown told ABC radio.
“One is that each time we go to meet the ALAEA they put on strike action, and we’ve been very clear about this – we’re not going to meet with a gun to our head.
“And the second problem is each time he (ALAEA national secretary Steve Purvinas) comes along, the price goes up. The most recent proposal he tabled was for 5.7 per cent.
“So we are a fair way apart.”
Mr Brown said Qantas had a “whole range of contingencies” to deal with the disruption, including alternative labour.
But he would not confirm whether that labour would take the form of offshore-trained workers.
Mr Purvinas disputed the airline’s claim that the union was being belligerent, saying Qantas needed to be more flexible in its negotiations.
“We had our 40th meeting with them a week and a half ago, and they came in and said, `Three per cent – take it or leave it,'” he told Macquarie Radio.
“This has been their position all along. Something has to change.”
Mr Brown said all passengers booked on the cancelled flights had been put on other flights.
“We’ve re-accommodated them on other flights and all of them within 60 minutes of their planned travel,” he said.
A Report by The Mole from AAP
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