A strike by engineers at Qantas threatens the Australian airline’s services next week, with the carrier unable to say whether flights to and from the UK will be affected.
The 1,500 engineers are demanding a 5% pay rise after rejecting a Qantas offer of 3%. Their union, the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, has threatened daily strikes at five Australian airports.
Qantas said it would take measures to minimise the impact, but admited flights would be cancelled. A spokesman said: “We have no intention of changing our wages policy. We have already begun planning schedule adjustments. Where flights are cancelled, customers will be contacted and rebooked on alternative services.”
The engineers began an overtime ban a month ago, but the airline denied union claims it has compromised safety in order to maintain services. It also denied allegations of bullying employees after docking engineers’ pay for refusing requests to work overtime.
A Qantas spokeswoman was unable to say whether UK services would suffer next week.