Ground crew at Qantas Airways, Australia‘s largest airline, voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favour of strike action over pay and job conditions.
The Transport Workers Union stated that 97 per cent of the 350 voting staff backed industrial action, including work stoppages ranging from one hour to 24 hours.
No date for a strike has been set, with the union obliged to give three days of notice before taking action.
“These ground workers don’t want to go on strike, but after being sold a false promise that this airline would finally treat them with respect, they’ve got no other choice,” said Michael Kaine, the union’s national secretary.
The union added that workers had seen their “pay, safety and conditions drop to rock-bottom levels”.
This comes after long-haul pilots at Qantas also voted in favour of industrial action in early August before ultimately settling a pay agreement with the airline.
open image in galleryQantas said in a statement that it was committed to reaching an agreement with its staff that included annual pay rises. The exact details of the airline’s offer were not clear.
“Discussions through the Fair Work Commission have been constructive and negotiations are continuing,” it said.
“Our focus is on an agreement that addresses what employees have told us matters most, including pay and more full-time opportunities.”
Qantas added that it had contingency plans to minimise any impact on operations in the event of a strike.
Its ground staff are employed by the subsidiary Qantas Ground Services as casual and part-time employees.
They work for Qantas Freight and the company’s regional Q-Link service, but do not service mainline and international services.
“QGS workers are calling for job security, a fair pay rise after years of wage freezes have left them behind, and for the scattered work groups to be brought back together under a single Qantas banner, instead of being pitted against each other,” the Transport Workers Union said.
Qantas and its ground staff are due back in Australia’s Fair Work Commission for talks on 18 September.
Qantas on Thursday reported A$2.06 billion ($1.47 billion) in annual underlying profit before tax, a 14 per cent fall attributed to a surge in fuel costs from the Middle East conflict.