engineers dilemma, page-3

Qantas docks engineers' pay amidst claims of buggery
Qantas has started to dock the wages of engineers participating in overtime bans,
the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association today claimed.
"Qantas has unfairly started to dock the wages of engineers for rejecting overtime
and are also trying to force licenced aircraft engineers to undertake work they are not
qualified to do and docking their wages when they refuse" ALAEA Federal Secretary
Steve Purvinas said.
"These moves by the airline are not only bully tactics, they're also putting the safety
of the travelling public at risk. The bullying tactics were confirmed yesterday when
we received a leaked internal Qantas document between Senior Managers
suggesting "staying with a buggery campaign" against their employees.
Qantas engineers have been taking part in overtime bans for the past four weeks
and will move to stop work meetings from next Monday 23rd June in a bid to maintain
the airline's world's best safety standards.
"We will continue stop work meetings across the country daily until Qantas ceases
the buggery campaign against its employees and starts to play fair.
"The last thing our members want to do is inconvenience the travelling public and
rather than allow an inferior and unsafe strikebreaker workforce on to Australian
tarmacs, we will be retaining skeleton crews in major ports to protect the integrity of
the Qantas safety brand.
"In the long-term the only way of maintaining services and standards within the
airline is for members to stand up for their basic rights.
"It is unfortunate that it has aot to this ooint. Qantas enaineers are committed to the
airline and have campaigni hard to maintain high safgty standards, but by driving
down wages and conditions, Qantas is putting its international reputation at risk.