QANTAS engineers have announced industrial action and it comes with a twist.
They have revealed they will stop work for one hour every weekday, starting on Thursday (August 25), until the week before Christmas.
But in what they say is an "unusual twist", the engineers have offered to organise union members to work overtime in place of the stopped workers.
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) federal secretary Steve Purvinas said this arrangement acknowledged the needs of customers.
"Should Qantas refuse our offer, disruptions would be of their own making," he said in a statement.
"We've been negotiating with the airline for job security terms for nearly 12 months.
"Any progress that had been made has now been eliminated with Qantas announcing its intention to shrink Qantas in favour of new companies based in Asia."
Earlier this week, the airline revealed a five-year plan to create a premium service in Asia and other restructuring that will cost up to 1000 Australian jobs.
The ALAEA says it cannot accept claims by the airline that its international arm is losing money when planes are fuller than ever and fuel is 25 per cent cheaper than in their most profitable year in 2008.
Mr Purvinas said job security was worrying to his union's members.
"We are concerned that Qantas has announced 1,000 job losses but has signalled that this is just the initial stage of the transformation plans."
In July, Qantas engineers stopped work for 60 seconds as part of their ongoing dispute with the airline.
In addition to the one-minute stop work action, two right-handed engineers announced they would work for a week using only their left hands.
Comment is being sought from Qantas.
Source: http://www.news.com.au
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