Qantas Airways, Australia's biggest airline, faces strike action by engineers next week as they step up a campaign for higher pay.
Maintenance workers will walk off the job in Melbourne and Sydney on Monday for four hours, with action to spread to other domestic airports later in the week, Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association Secretary Steve Purvinas said in an interview this morning.
Qantas engineers, who must inspect every plane before it can take off from an Australian airport, have held stop-work meetings and limited overtime for more than a month as they seek a 5 per cent pay increase.
The airline, which is offering 3 per cent, operates more than 5,000 domestic flights a week to 57 destinations.
"It's about the money," Mr Purvinas said. "We are almost in agreement about work conditions but Qantas said they won't negotiate while we have action planned."
Belinda de Rome, a spokeswoman for Sydney-based Qantas, declined to comment. Qantas and the union have been negotiating a new employment agreement for 18 months covering the airline's 1,600 engineers.
Qantas shares fell 10 cents, or 3.1 per cent, to A$3.12 at the close in Sydney, extending this year's decline to 43 per cent.
Bloomberg