Australia : Postal strike called off but air travel hit

Postal strike called off but air travel hit

Article from : The Courier-Mail

Anna Caldwell, Natalie Gregg and Angela Saurine

December 17, 2009

POSTAL strikes planned for today, tomorrow and Monday was stopped at the 11th hour last night after thousands of posties walked off the job yesterday in a pay row.

The workplace tribunal Fair Work Australia ruled that Australia Post stoppages can’t occur – but warned unions were still threatening to strike next Tuesday.

Two thousand Australia Post workers were set to strike from midnight last night, when the tribunal put a last-minute stop to the action.

Australia Post spokesman Alex Twomey said there was a significant backlog of post in Victoria, with about 4.1million items undelivered.

He described the Queensland effect as ’’minimal’’, saying any backlog - caused by 2000 of the state’s postal workers downing tools yesterday - should be cleared by this afternoon.

The Queensland workers had joined up to 20,000 postal employees across Australia who walked off the job or were involved in rolling stoppages yesterday.

Mr Twomey said he couldn’t rule out further delays, because the situation was in the hands of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union.

’’They have already served us a notice to say they’re planning to strike for next Tuesday,’’ he said.

Delays were expected to be worse out of Victoria, where workers blockaded mail trucks yesterday.

Customers were advised to post Christmas mail as soon as possible, but Australia Post Queensland spokeswoman Simone Kurtz said the backlog was expected to be cleared today.

Meanwhile the holiday plans of thousands of Australians are in limbo as industrial disputes threaten airline schedules.

Confusion continued to surround the travel arrangements of thousands of passengers caught up in the British Airways stoush, with workers threatening a 12-day strike from December 23 over job cuts.

Legal action was due to begin in Britain last night in a bid to scuttle the planned strike, but flights around the world have been rescheduled in anticipation of the action and airlines, including Qantas, were yesterday still under siege from worried customers trying to make other arrangements.

Thousands of Australians travelling between Britain and Australia are among one million customers around the world who would be affected if the strike went ahead.

However, travellers booked on Qantas and international Jetstar flights also could be disrupted by proposed strike action by professional engineers.

Groups of degree-qualified engineers working at Qantas heavy maintenance facilities in Sydney, Brisbane and Avalon will begin stopping work today for periods of up to five business days.

The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia said the workers were fatigued and being called out for critical and complex engineering issues with less than five hours’ sleep between jobs. Senior industrial officer Alison Rose said workers had been left with little option but to strike.

Meanwhile, a wider group of engineers is continuing workplace bans on overtime and out-of-hours call-outs.

Qantas said it had contingency plans and there would not be any disruption to passengers because the professional engineers represented fewer than 200 of its 5500 engineers.

The Qantas spokeswoman said the engineers were asking for a 26 per cent pay rise, which she said was unreasonable.