Qantas penalised for illegal pandemic sackings
Qantas has been ordered to pay compensation to three former workers in a test case over illegal sacking of ground staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee ordered Qantas pay $170,000 to three employees who were used as test cases during a lengthy hearing in March and May.
The Transport Workers’ Union has pursued Qantas in the Federal Court after the company decided to outsource almost 1700 ground staff jobs in November 2020.
After redundancies commenced, these employees were eventually all jettisoned out of the airline by March 2021.
In July 2021, Justice Michael Lee found the move was designed to deprive workers of being able to bargain for a new enterprise agreement and, as such, contravened employment law.
Qantas had argued the 1700 employees should not be compensated at all because they would have been made redundant in November 2020 anyway due to the state of the aviation industry during the pandemic.
In December 2021, Justice Lee rejected a bid by the union to have the workers reinstated at Qantas after finding that proposal was impractical.
The judge’s findings that the terminations were unlawful were unsuccessfully appealed by Qantas in the Full Federal Court and High Court.
The matter then returned to the Federal Court in March and May where the judge heard submissions about how much three test case employees should be paid for the airline’s contraventions.
Justice Lee found that the workers would have been retrenched by late 2021 anyway given that the airline “laser-like” focus on cutting costs without regard for its employees.
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The matter will return to court on November 15, when the judge will hear submissions about the total compensation sum payable by Qantas.
The TWU is also seeking penalties against the airline.
– AAP
