Qantas has come under fire from shareholders over plans to give chief executive Alan Joyce a 71 per cent rise while the airline grapples with industrial disputes involving ground staff and engineers.

The Australian Shareholders' Association (ASA) is unhappy about the generous pay plan and will be making its feelings known at the company's AGM in two weeks' time.

Mr Joyce is in line to get a 71 per cent raise which will take his annual pay package to AU$5 million.

The ASA also says it is worried the current row between management and unions is doing lasting damage to the Qantas brand.

The concerns come as the industrial boilover frustrating travellers Australia-wide continues today, with the engineers union preparing for more stop-work meetings this afternoon.

Qantas and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association were set to face off at Fair Work this morning, with the airline accused of leaking the details of private negotiations over a workers' agreement, but the union has since withdrawn the complaint.

This afternoon's stop-work meetings follow a week of action from the engineers' union, which is lobbying for a 15 per cent pay rise and better job security.

Qantas announced yesterday it would ground five planes from Monday and warned the industrial spat with its workers could be more painful than the 1998 industrial dispute.

The Federal Government told unions to find a solution to the dispute or face government intervention.

"There is no doubt there is a lot of damage been caused to the brand," said Vas Kolesnikoff from the ASA.

"There is also obviously a quite significant loss caused by all the stoppages so that is clearly something that is not a good thing for the company."

Qantas shareholders have not received a dividend in two years and Mr Kolesnikoff says the share price is at "historical lows".

He says the ASA has problems with the use of underlying earnings to set the short-term incentives for Mr Joyce's pay.

Mr Kolesnikoff says the ASA has concerns that Qantas' remuneration committee is not "working appropriately".

"The use of underlying profits before tax is, [firstly], not really an audited figure and secondly, not the bottom-line figure, bottom-line profit that effectively the shareholders live with," he said.

"The true result of any company is that result as determined as true and fair by the accounting standards.

"We will be voting against the remuneration report and we will be voting against one of the directors. As member of the remuneration committee, Richard Goodmanson, presided over effectively AU$22 million worth of payments to Geoff Dickson in 2008 and 2009 on the basis that Qantas's international operations were profitable."

Mr Kolesnikoff says the current low price of shares could make Qantas vulnerable to a private equity bid.

"It's pretty clear whenever a stock price is low, especially for a large international company such as this, that private equity are definitely looking at it," he said.

"This is clearly a concern for the Australian Shareholders Association and should be of concern for all Australians, that one of our national brands, our national carrier, has the potential to be taken from underneath our feet."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is urging Qantas and the unions to negotiate a settlement but says the Government has the power to act if the dispute escalates.

"For a very long period of time in our industrial relations system there has been the ability of Government to get involved in major disputes that have implications for the national economy or implications for health and safety," she said. "It's been a long standing feature of workplace relations law."