The national carrier, will compensate three staff as a test case, with full compensation to be determined in November.
Key Takeaways
- Qantas has been ordered to pay three staff $170,000 in total, after the Federal Court ruled it illegally sacked 1700 ground handling staff during the pandemic.
- This will serve as a test case, before full compensation is determined when the parties return to court in November.
- The Transport Workers’ Union says this will amount to more than $100 million in total compensation for workers.
- The TWU first took action against Qantas in 2021, after 1700 ground handling jobs were outsourced to third-party operators. At the time, Qantas said the decision would deliver savings of $100 million a year.
Big number
$100 millIon. That’s how much the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) expects to be delivered back to Qantas workers who were illegally sacked during the pandemic.
What we know now
We know that three staff were awarded compensation of $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000 respectively for “non-economic loss”. This was to serve as a test case, with both parties set to return to court in November to determine the final compensation bill for all staff affected.
Key background
In 2020, Qantas announced it had decided to outsource its ground handling operations at 10 Australian airports – a decision it claimed would save the airline about $100 million a year. As a result, 1700 staff were made redundant – but the real kicker was that these employees could not take further industrial action in the future.
The TWU took Qantas to the Federal Court, alleging that its decision to outsource the jobs was “adverse action” against each of the employees, and was at least in part motivated to heed off industrial action when things returned to normal.
The Federal Court sided with the TWU, and Qantas appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court, ultimately losing again. The airline then appealed to the High Court, which again sided with the TWU, finding that Qantas’ decision to outsource the jobs did breach the law. The TWU said on X that the decision to reject Qantas’ appeal was “a massive victory for the workers who have not stopped fighting for justice since they were outsourced”.
Crucial quote
“Today is finally the day of justice. This is a message to corporate Australia that you cannot get away with illegally sacking workers,” TWU assistant state secretary, Nick McIntosh, said outside the Federal Court on Monday.
Tangent
Earlier this month the airline was also ordered by the Federal Court to pay $100 million in penalties for misleading consumers by offering and selling tickets for flights it had already decided to cancel, and by failing to prompting tell existing ticketholders of its decision.
“This is a substantial penalty, which sets a strong signal to all businesses, big or small, that they will face serious consequences if they mislead their customers,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
It’s been a rollercoaster year for the airline, who in May also gave an undertaking to the ACCC that it would pay about $20 million to consumers who purchased tickets on flights that Qantas had already decided to cancel, or in some cases who were re-accommodated on those flights after their original flights were cancelled. Up to 880,000 consumers were affected by Qantas’ conduct.
The company’s statutory profits after tax took a near-30% hit across the last financial year, which the airline says is due to moderating fare prices.
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