A court on Monday ordered Australian airline Qantas Airways to pay a total of 170,000 Australian dollars ($114,000) to three baggage handlers it illegally fired in 2020, raising the prospect of a hefty damages bill in a lawsuit involving about 1,700 former workers whose jobs were outsourced.
Federal Court Judge Michael Lee said Qantas must pay each of the dismissed workers A$30,000, A$40,000 and A$100,000 respectively for non-economic loss, to reflect the “harm suffered” when the airline fired them , them and their colleagues, to avoid union action.
The carrier must use these payments as a “test case” as it negotiates with a union a total damages bill for all former ground workers. Qantas had claimed the layoffs were justified by cost-cutting measures during the COVID-19 bird flu pandemic and fought the industrial action all the way to the High Court.
Mr Lee said he found that if Qantas had not illegally outsourced its ground handling operations in 2020, it would have done so legally in 2021 to save around A$100 million a year.
Although the decision did not give a final amount, it sets the tone for the latest major legal battle for the airline, which is trying to recover from a reputational horror episode linked to its actions during and immediately after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic from 2020 to 2022.
The airline said in May it would pay A$120 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a regulator that accused it of selling tickets for already canceled flights in the months after the airline reopened. Australia’s international border. It was also accused of lobbying the federal government to stop rival Qatar Airways from offering more flights to Australia.
“Qantas says it has moved on,” said Michael Kaine, national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, which brought the unfair dismissal action.
“It’s time to prove it. After relentlessly prolonging this case and refusing to provide justice to workers, Qantas must do everything in its power to ensure proper compensation.
Vanessa Hudson, CEO of Qantas, who took office in November 2023, said in a statement that the company apologized to workers affected by its decision “and we know it is incumbent on Qantas to learn the lessons of this affair”.
Justice Lee ordered Qantas and the TWU to discuss compensation for all laid-off workers and return to court on November 15.
($1 = 1.4916 Australian dollars)
