Australian flag carrier Qantas may end up paying almost A$100 million after a federal court in the country ruled it illegally fired almost 1,700 baggage handlers in 2020. Justice Michael Lee ruled on Monday (21 October) that three test cases should receive A$30,000, A$40,000 and A$100,000. They suffered varying amounts of “non-economic loss”, the court ruled, which refers to hardship and distress caused by the airline. Many workers will also be able to claim economic losses, linked to lost wages, according to media reports.
The judge ordered Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union into mediation using the test-case amounts to inform a total payout, with the parties due to report back early next month. He found that the workers would have been retrenched one year later in 2021 anyway due to the airline’s “laser-like” focus on cutting costs, capping the economic component of compensation calculations.
Qantas unsuccessfully appealed against the decision to the full bench of the court and later the high court.
Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Hudson said in a statement posted on the airline’s website: “We sincerely apologise to our former employees who were impacted by this decision and we know that the onus is on Qantas to learn from this. We recognise the emotional and financial impact this has had on these people and their families. We hope that this provides closure to those who have been affected.”
Qantas said in its statement that it has sought the assistance of the TWU in order to find a way to speed up the compensation and a mediation process will now commence. Qantas said it is also undertaking an actuarial review to develop an estimate of the likely total compensation amount payable.
The Federal Court found that while there were valid and lawful commercial reasons for the outsourcing, it could not rule out that Qantas also had an unlawful reason – namely, preventing employees from participating in protected industrial action and participating in bargaining for an enterprise agreement.
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