Qantas Engineers Strike in Melbourne

Four days after baggage handlers, ground workers and other Qantas employees struck on Tuesday, it will be the turn of the air carrier's engineers to pursue a similar job industrial action in Melbourne on Friday.

The work stoppage by members of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association will be just for one hour at 5 p.m. The strike is due to a dispute between the union members and the flag carrier over wages and work conditions.

The industrial action is expected to affect about 1,300 Qantas passengers since the air carrier would be forced to cancel two flights, while another six flights would be delayed by at least one hour, Qantas said.

However, engineers denied that their strike would cause any operation disruption and accused Qantas of fabrication because while night shift workers would arrive one hour late at 6 p.m., day shift workers would cover late employees by working an extra hour.

They said the union members opted to walk off their jobs because negotiations have dragged for the past six months.