An Australia-based airline is in serious legal trouble after illegally laying off nearly 2,000 employees. The firings came at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, and one federal judge is calling the move the “largest and most significant contravention” of labor laws in the country’s history.
Qantas Airways must pay 90 million Australian dollars (or $59 million) for the illegal firing of over 1,800 ground staff, including baggage handlers and cleaners. The fine is in addition to another $78 million that the company initially pledged to pay its former employees as a result of their unjustified termination.
The $78 million payment was first ordered last year, when seven High Court judges unanimously ruled that Quantas’ method of outsourcing those jobs and firing the employees was illegal.
The airline was initially taken to court by the Transport Workers Union, which argued that the company should receive the largest possible fine.
“If any further evidence was needed of the unrelenting and aggressive litigation strategy adopted in this case by Qantas, it is provided by this effort directed to denying any compensation whatsoever to those in respect of whom Qantas was publicly professing regret for their misfortune,” said Federal Court Justice Michael Lee.
“I do think that the people in charge of Qantas now have some genuine regret, but this more likely reflects the damage that this case has done to the company rather than remorse for the damage done to the affected workers.”
In a statement, Quantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson said that the company
“sincerely apologizes to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result.”
“The decision to outsource five years ago, particularly during such an uncertain time, caused genuine hardship for many of our former team and their families,” Hudson added.
How Will The Former Employees Be Paid?
“Over the past 18 months we’ve worked hard to change the way we operate as part of our efforts to rebuild trust with our people and our customers. This remains our highest priority as we work to earn back the trust we lost.”
Members of the union will receive $33 million of the fine, and an additional hearing will be held to determine where the additional money will be sent. Michael Kaine, national secretary for the Transport Workers Union, says that the decision is a massive victory for worker’s rights in Australia.
“It is a significant — the most significant — industrial outcome in Australia’s history and it sends a really clear message to Qantas and to every employer in Australia: Treat your work force illegally and you will be held accountable,” Kaine said, thrilled after the decision from Lee and the court.
“Against all the odds, we took on a behemoth that had shown itself to be ruthless and we won.”
