Qantas deal saves 500 jobs

Worker concerns over fatigue and pay issues have been overcome to save more than 500 Qantas maintenance jobs.

Maintenance normally done overseas on the Airbus A330 will return to Australian shores at the start of next year - employing those who thought their tenure would finish when current Boeing 767 maintenance is phased out over the next five years.

Premier Anna Bligh and Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said yesterday an agreement had been reached with unions over working conditions to secure the jobs that were in danger of going to Asia.

"It's terrific news today that Qantas has decided to keep its heavy maintenance engineering facility here in Brisbane, employing more than 500 people," Bligh said at the Brisbane heavy maintenance Qantas hangar where the announcement was made.

Joyce said the key hurdle in negotiations was flexible working conditions, as the company needed maintenance crews to work longer hours to finish jobs to get the aircraft back in the air.

"The jobs would have dried up when the 767s retired from our fleet ... for us it's important that we have flexible conditions - if we weren't able to maintain them [the A330s] and be competitive globally the jobs wouldn't have been secured here in Queensland," Joyce said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union site convener Stuart Cook said talks had stalled over concerns about fatigue and working more than the standard 7.6-hour working day to get aircraft online.

He also conceded negotiations had begun before the global financial crisis had hit hard, so maintainers were now happy to have secure jobs for the next four years.

- AAP