Qantas engineers call off stop-work action
Posted 3 hours 28 minutes ago
Updated 2 hours 19 minutes ago
Around 1,500 Qantas engineers were planning to walk off the job. (File photo) (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
Qantas aircraft engineers have called off stop-work action which had threatened to disrupt domestic flights tomorrow.
The engineers are locked in a dispute over a wage deal, and had accused Qantas of recruiting strike breakers to thwart industrial action.
But Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president Sharan Burrow says she has asked unions to postpone tomorrow's industrial action.
She wants Qantas management to come back to the bargaining table.
"This is not a backdown for these workers, they're prepared to put on the action, I don't want anybody left in doubt about that," she said.
"When I got up this morning and looked at the situation I decided that it would be best for everybody to get a much broader discussion through the unions.
"You can't do that in a few hours."
Ms Burrow says she will write to Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon this afternoon to ask him to come back to the negotiating table.
"It would be very hard for the Australian public to actually understand why Qantas would threaten their job security, would refuse to sit at the table to bargain for a very simple request, which is just a maintenance of living standards," she said.
"I think even Geoff Dixon would say that's a reasonable request."
Steve Purvinas from the Licenced Engineers Association says it will meet with other unions next week and in the meantime will continue with overtime bans.
"I don't think this is [a] backdown, I think it's a responsible step that needed to be taken, he said