Qantas braces for engineers downing tools as Vanessa Hudson, John Mullen front shareholders in Hobart

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Qantas braces for engineers downing tools as Vanessa Hudson, John Mullen front shareholders in Hobart

Hundreds of Qantas engineers are walking off the job on Friday morning to highlight their pay battle at the company’s annual general meeting in Hobart.

Line maintenance engineers in the Tasmanian capital, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney will stop work in four-hour stints to support claims for pay rises totalling more than 25 per cent over three years.

The action comes as Qantas grapples with big pay demands from short-haul pilots and works through the potential cost of its its legal battle with the Transport Workers’ Union over the unlawful termination of ground crew four years ago.

The TWU claims Qantas could have to pay more than $100m-plus bill to the 1700 jettisoned workers in the wake of a Federal Court judge this week awarding damages of $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000 in three test cases.

At the AGM commencing 11am Hobart time, Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson is expected to face questions about the ongoing battles and her efforts to soften the image of the airline after 15 years under her hard-nosed predecessor Alan Joyce.

It will be her second AGM in the pilot’s seat and the first where she will be fully accountable for the airlines successes and struggles.

Mr Joyce stepped down in September last year, bringing his planned departure forward by two months earlier to “help the company accelerate its renewal”.

Qantas this year fast-tracked corporate veteran John Mullen taking over as chair from Richard Goyder, who had supported Mr Joyce and his team’s tough approach to costs.

The airline said in a statement that it had put in place contingencies for Friday’s industrial action and “we expect there to be no impact to our customers”.

It claimed to have successfully ensured there had been no flight delays or cancellations since engineers started their action late last month.

“Our teams continue to do a great job helping customers get to their destination safely,” Qantas said.

The engineer’s pay demand features an up-front pay rise of 15 per cent to make up for more than three years of wage freezes, followed by two annual rises of 5 per cent.

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