Travellers in Australia warned of flight delays as Qantas engineers go on strike

Sydney, Dec 13 (IANS) Travellers in Australia were warned to expect flight delays on Friday after hundreds of Qantas engineers across the country began strike action over a pay dispute with the airline.

Around 500 engineers at Australia's five busiest airports, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, began walking off the job at 3:30 a.m. local time on Friday and would not return until 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.

It came after pay negotiations between Qantas and several trade unions representing the engineers broke down, Xinhua news agency reported.

The unions said it was likely the strike would have an immediate impact on flights at the five airports.

A spokesperson for Qantas said that the airline had several contingencies in place to prevent delays.

The engineers, whose duties include towing and marshalling planes, demanded an immediate 15 per cent pay rise followed by a 5 per cent annual raise.

Qantas offered a 3 per cent wage increase per year over three years.

Friday marked the first day of Australia's six-week summer travel period, with 13.5 million passengers expected to pass through capital city airports in the period.

Over 80,000 domestic passengers were set to depart from, or arrive at, Sydney Airport on Friday, its busiest day for domestic travel since 2019.

In October, Australia's flag carrier and largest airline was told by a Federal Court in Sydney that it will have to pay significant compensation to 1,700 employees who were illegally fired by the airline during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the ruling, Qantas would be required to pay 1,700 former ground crew employees varying degrees of compensation.

Justice Michael Lee ordered that three "test case" workers would be awarded a combined 170,000 Australian dollars (114,173.2 US dollars) in compensation.

"I consider that the amounts of compensation for non-economic loss reflect the harm sustained by each of the three individuals in a way that is appropriate, just and rational," he said.

The compensation will be capped at approximately 12 months' pay for the workers.