It’s the time of year when many Australians begin planning their Christmas and New Year’s travel, but this year there’s a potential spanner in the works in the form of a Qantas flight crew strike.
Qantas cabin crew employees have voted in favour of taking industrial action in a bid to improve their pay and working conditions.
Nearly 1200 of the airline’s cabin crew voted in favour of the action.
Domestic flight crews of Qantas will walk off the job for 24 hours at some point in the coming month, which could result in travel disruptions during the busy holiday season.
“After ongoing negotiations with Qantas impeded, the action was a recline,” said Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) vice-president Angela McManus.
“Christmas was never the planned timing. We don’t want to disrupt customers because it’s not in our nature”
According to the union, a pay freeze that was implemented during the Covid pandemic has resulted in workers not receiving a pay raise for three years.
In a statement to the media, a Qantas spokesperson said that the company had proposed 3 per cent annual pay rises and access to more than $7000 in bonuses for flight crew staff. The spokesperson said that the proposals had been made in good faith and were designed to address the concerns of staff.
“FAAA’s decision is very disappointing, given that we’re still negotiating a new agreement,” the spokesperson said.
