The ALAEA has cancelled planned Qantas industrial action this week and lifted its overtime ban following CASA’s grounding of Tiger Airways late on Friday evening.
“We fully intended to kick that campaign off on Monday in earnest but the Tiger woes have thrown a spanner into our works,” federal secretary Steve Purvinas wrote on the ALAEA website on Sunday. “Running a successful PIA (protected industrial action) campaign also requires us to do it in a manner that we don’t upset too many people in the process.”
Nonetheless, Purvinas said that industrial action “will be required at some point as it appears to the only language that [Qantas] management understand.”
The ALAEA had planned a series of work stoppages this week, and had placed a ban on its engineers working overtime.
Meanwhile, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia all announced special fares for stranded Tiger passengers, while Jetstar also announced plans to operate a number of additional ad hoc services on Saturday to help move stranded Tiger passengers. Those flights were Melbourne-Gold Coast-Melbourne, Sydney-Gold Coast-Sydney, and Sydney-Sunshine Coast-Sydney. Virgin Australia also plans to operate some additional services over the course of the week.
