Australia's Qantas Airways said on Monday it had postponed talks with striking aircraft
engineers until Wednesday to give unions more time to prepare.

Both sides had scheduled talks for Monday over a long-running dispute with engineers demanding an average 5 percent pay rise, which has grounded just over 200 domestic flights during a month of rolling work stoppages.

"The engineers asked us for more time to pull together a delegation and we agreed to that," a Qantas spokesman said.

Qantas cancelled 19 domestic flights on Friday in the latest spate of disruptions after members of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) walked off the job in four of the country's biggest cities.

The campaign has disrupted flights in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns and Perth as
Qantas refuses to extend its offer of a 3 percent wage rise for around 1,500 engineers.

ALAEA spokesman Steve Purvinas said the engineers would hold no more stoppages until the July 2 meeting.  Qantas has refused to negotiate while the engineers continue industrial action.

"We have no stoppages in the pipeline at the moment, so it gives Qantas the week to negotiate with us,

Source: Reuters