Qantas engineers to strike

Qantas is set to suffer from strike action next week as engineers in Melbourne begin rolling stoppages from Monday.  The strikes have the potential to have a massive impact during the busy school holiday period.

In a unique move the union that is striking has offered Qantas the use of its members who are not rostered on, on that shift as long as Qantas pay them double time for coming in to work to cover their rostered colleagues who are partaking in the rolling stoppages.

Qantas labelled the offer a "cynical stunt" as the engineers would have to be paid a minimum four hours each. "No Australian company would pay staff four times their normal rate to go on strike," said Qantas group executive of operations Lyell Strambi.

Read more from theaustralian.com.au's Industrial editor Ewin Hannan HERE