Qantas Airways' long-running dispute with its maintenance engineers is finally over now that the engineers have voted in favour of a new work-place agreement.
Today the airline's 1,500 licensed engineers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new four-year enterprise agreement, the Oneworld carrier says in a brief statement.
Last month the airline and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) reached an in-principle agreement on a new wages package for the engineers.
But the vote from the rank-and-file was crucial because without their approval there was no way the deal could be implemented.
Qantas has been involved in a lengthy dispute with its maintenance engineers who, through the auspices of the union, had been pushing for 5% pay rises per annum whereas the airline has said it has a policy of only paying wages rises of 3% per annum.
The airline and the union have never disclosed the details of the agreement to the news media but Qantas has stated publicly it falls within the framework of its wages policy.
Qantas' dispute with its engineers led to stop work meetings earlier this year, forcing the carrier to cancel dozens of domestic flights on numerous occasions.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
