Too late to reinstate flights: Qantas

SYDNEY (AAP) - Oct 10 - Qantas says it's too late to reinstate the dozens of flights it cancelled or delayed after engineers called off threatened strike action at the last minute.
The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) on Monday cancelled the four-hour work stoppages at Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports scheduled to start from 3pm (AEDT).
The union issued a press release at 12.30pm, stating it had cancelled the work stoppages after management threatened to dock them a day's pay.
A Qantas spokesman said at 1pm that it hadn't received official notice from the union.
"However, it's far too late for us to reinstate flights, cancelling on such late notice," the spokesman told AAP.
"The changed schedule, with the flights cancelled and delayed, will remain to minimise any further disruptions to passengers."
The spokesman said Qantas had been contacting affected passengers since last Friday about the changes.
The airline estimated that the stoppages would cause the cancellation of 40 domestic flights on Monday, and the delaying or rescheduling of another 27.
Eleven international services would be delayed.
ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said Qantas wrote a "threatening" letter saying it would dock engineers more than the specified four hours, if they went ahead with Monday's industrial action.
"The airline is playing dirty pool with our members by threatening them for taking lawful industrial action," Mr Purvinas said in a statement.
"To ensure our members are not unfairly disadvantaged by Qantas management's last-minute curve ball, we have decided to reassess our position on today's planned action."
A Qantas letter to Brisbane-based engineers states that under the Fair Work Act they would not be paid for the four-hour work stoppage.
It also states that the union's notice to Qantas specifies the work stoppage would take place for four hours only and any industrial action outside the period could result in further pay deductions.
"If an employee does engage in unprotected industrial action, Qantas is required by law to deduct four hours pay (in addition to the four-hour deduction for the protected work stoppage)," the letter states.
Mr Purvinas said the union would re-schedule the industrial action for Friday and re-word its notice to Qantas with specified times.
"If they want to play cat and mouse with us, we'll play back," he told AAP.
Qantas estimated that 11,000 passengers were affected by Monday's planned strike action that did not go ahead.
Qantas group executive Olivia Wirth said the union had accomplished its intention without suffering from its actions.
"The engineers union has waited until a few hours before the planned strike to call it off so that passengers are still disrupted and the Qantas business has been damaged, but their members don't lose any money from going on strike," Ms Wirth said in a statement on Monday.
Strike action by a number of unions have affected about 46,500 passengers in the past six weeks, Qantas said.
It's the second time in recent days that industrial action aimed at Qantas has been called off at the last minute.
Last Thursday, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) called off work stoppages for baggage handlers and ground crew planned for the following day at airports across the country about 5pm (AEDT) on Thursday.
The union on Thursday described the move as a "significant gesture of good faith".
But the airline said it was too late to scrap the contingency plans, and thousands of Qantas passengers turned up at airports on Friday morning to discover their flights had been cancelled.