Air New Zealand aircraft maintenance engineers, aircraft logistics and related staff have scheduled a strike four days out from Christmas.

Unions will meet with Air New Zealand on Monday to try resolve a pay dispute and avert a strike planned for the busiest day of the year.

Air New Zealand aircraft maintenance engineers, aircraft logistics and related staff have scheduled a strike four days out from Christmas – on the airline's busiest travel day of the year.

Air New Zealand said close to 42,000 customers booked to travel domestically and internationally on that date would face potential flight cancellations if it went ahead.

The Aviation and Marine Engineers Association (AMEA) and E tū notified the airline on Thursday evening of a total strike by almost a thousand unionised employees on December 21. The unions have also advised to expect further industrial action.

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Aircraft maintenance engineers work in the hangar at airports and in workshops to carry out maintenance, identify defects, undertake modifications, repair and service.

That includes signing off aircraft prior to departure, as well as managing the availability of aircraft parts and related activities.

The airline said while the group has received pay increases annually for the past 12 years, it has so far rejected recent proposals including an immediate 2 per cent pay increase followed by a further 3 per cent increase after 12 months, with a further pay review in mid-2021.

STUFF The workers are involved in a dispute over pay.

Staff have also declined a proposal to standardise overtime pay to 150 per cent of regular pay rate (currently overtime is paid at a mix of double time and time-and-a-half), and a corresponding $6400 one-off payment to address the change in rate. Only some of this workgroup did regular overtime but the payment would be made to everyone employed under this collective agreement, the airline said.

Along with pay, claims on the aircraft maintenance engineers' side have included an extra week of annual leave for employees with five years' service (taking shift workers to six weeks a year), free reserved car parking spaces within 500m of their workplace, and the right to renegotiate terms just prior to the busy Christmas season again next year, the airline said.

In a statement, AMEA said the pay offer was unfair at a time when the airline was making substantial profits. It was less than the offers made to other employee groups at the airline and members felt insulted.

"We have been in negotiations with Air New Zealand for months. If Air New Zealand was genuinely concerned about its customers, it would have resolved this matter early and quietly. That is good management. The best way for Air New Zealand to bring its overtime cost down is for it to ensure it has sufficient staff, which is also good management."

SUPPLIED The airline said bookings for December 21 would be affected.

It said the engineers had been threatened with more heavy maintenance work being sent overseas.

"In 2013 heavy maintenance wide body checks, which were then carried out in Auckland, were outsourced to Asia. In the same year Air New Zealand tried to force one group of engineers to carry out the work of another. This followed a significant contracting out of heavy maintenance work in 2006. Air New Zealand is now threatening to send narrowbody heavy maintenance work overseas, which is currently performed in Christchurch.

"These are highly qualified employees who ensure aircraft are safe to fly. They have been repeatedly kicked by Air New Zealand management, and they have had enough."

The union said the workers were not only fighting for a decent pay rise but for the future of aircraft maintenance in New Zealand.

The airline said the average income of the maintenance engineers, logistics and other staff to strike was $115,000 and about 170 of them earn more than $150,000.

Chief executive Christopher Luxon, meanwhile, earned more than $4 million in the year to June 30.

Air New Zealand general manager aircraft maintenance Viv de Beus said the news was extremely disappointing and it appeared the engineers were deliberately using Kiwi families' holidays as a bargaining chip.

"We know how important summer holidays are for our customers who look forward to being able to gather with friends and family at this important time of year. It would be devastating to see the holiday plans of more than 40,000 hardworking Kiwis and international visitors ruined.

"We have only been in negotiations with this group for six weeks so industrial action is entirely premature. We remain committed to working closely with the engineers' unions to reach a reasonable agreement and avoid strike action if at all possible."

E tū head of aviation Savage said the unions were disappointed with "misleading information" released by Air New Zealand in relation to the strike notice.

"Air New Zealand had taken an unnecessarily aggressive approach."

It would bargain from Monday in the hope of reaching a deal, he said.

"This is not just about pay. It's about repeated proposals by the airline weeks out from Christmas to pay them less than colleagues who have already settled, and to cut into key conditions, including overtime rates.

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"This affects line and hangar engineers, but also store workers and aircraft cleaners, who are covered by the same document and who are struggling to get ahead," he said.

Members felt under-appreciated and under attack, he said.

"In aviation, there is a constant downward pressure on costs driven by airlines. The result is a race to the bottom on wages and conditions," Savage said.

Air New Zealand will communicate with customers booked to travel on December 21 closer to the travel date.

Already, passengers who are booked to fly have complained that their Christmas plans are being disrupted.

"I'm booked to go on a holiday on December 21, which we have been paying for all year working extra shifts for and I shall suffer the consequences of others," said one, Claire Daley.

Another said: "[I] was going to spend my first Christmas with my daughter in Auckland in 10 years., Just had a good cry, how could they do this?"

Jetstar said it was too early to comment on whether it could expect a rush of bookings on that date, instead.

Customers are asked to avoid calling the airline's customer contact centre in the meantime as no further information is available at this stage.

Customers booked to travel on Air New Zealand's regional turbo-prop aircraft fleet will not be affected as this fleet is maintained by a separate work group.

House of Travel Commercial director Brent Thomas said the strike would have a "significant impact" on travel if it was to go ahead. "There would be a number of very grumpy people."

Because the days leading up to and following December 21 would be extremely busy for Air New Zealand, the ability for the airline to move people would be limited, he said.

"A lot of industries will be shutting their doors on that day and a lot of people will be travelling.

"The problem they are going to have is if it does go ahead there will be a compounding impact."

He said it may need to put bigger planes on some routes.

WILL TRAVEL INSURANCE COVER COSTS?

Comparetravelinsurance.co.nz director director Natalie Ball said travellers with comprehensive travel insurance should be covered by strike action.

"In a nutshell, disruptions outside of the airlines control such as strikes, riots, bad weather and natural disasters are generally covered by most travel insurers. But travel delays or cancellations where the airline is at fault are not - this could be anything from mechanical problems, maintenance, staff shortages or overbooking."

Depending on the policy, travellers should also be able to claim any new flight costs and flight change fees under "additional travel expenses", she said.

"They also can be reimbursed for any additional expenses such as meals and accommodation if delayed for more than a six-hour period."

YOUR RIGHTS

Consumer NZ advises:

The Civil Aviation Act requires an airline to compensate you if a domestic flight is cancelled or delayed for reasons within its control.

Assuming the airline is at fault, compensation should include reasonably foreseeable losses caused by the snag, such as the cost of meals, missed connections or events. Cover is limited to the actual cost of the delay, or 10 times the cost of the ticket, whichever is lower.

In this case, it's likely to mean a refund for any affected flights.

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