Qantas hit by industrial action on two fronts

Qantas is hoping to avoid delays over the busy Christmas period despite industrial action from security staff and engineers.

Security screeners at Melbourne’s Tullamarine and Avalon airports are in dispute with their employer MSS, which provides security services to Qantas. The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union says MSS wants to introduce a flexibility clause into its enterprise agreement that would cut screeners’ wages.

Yesterday the screeners voted to take industrial action during the Chritsmas period.

“Screeners don’t want to inconvenience the public. They are urgently calling on Qantas and Jetstar to talk sense into their security contractor, MSS,” Jess Walsh, state secretary of the LHMU said in a statement.

Qantas says it has been assured by MSS that contingences are in place to ensure disruptions are kept to a minimum.

Meanwhile, the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) has announced that Qantas maintenance engineers will take industrial action over the next five business days following seven months of failed negotiations over a new collective agreement.

The engineers took industrial action back in November, but several subsequent meetings have failed to resolve the dispute, which centres on the issues of professional recognition and fatigue.

APESMA Senior Industrial Officer Alison Rose claims some senior engineers have been asked to respond to a number of “critical complex engineering issues” in a 24-hour period with less than five hours sleep between jobs.

“These stop-work periods will inevitably have an impact on Qantas’ maintenance schedule and may impede the airline’s ability to put planes in the air. We ask passengers to understand that this industrial action has been taken reluctantly, and is the result of management stubbornness.”

Qantas does not expect delays from the engineers strike.