Qantas ordered to pay 90m for unlawful outsourcing of 1,820 staff

A Federal Court ruling has ordered Qantas to pay a total penalty of 90 million Australian dollars for unlawfully sacking about 1,820 ground-handling staff in 2020 and outsourcing their roles to contractors during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The decision, delivering a final chapter to a five-year battle, assigns 50 million to the Transport Workers Union as a direct distribution to the union for its pivotal role, with a further 40 million held in reserve for potential future payments to the affected workers. This penalty sits on top of a 120 million compensation package previously agreed for the workers who lost their jobs or suffered non-financial losses.

Justice Michael Lee outlined that the outsourcing decision was a carefully planned act meant to curb workforce bargaining power and to deter protected industrial action. He stressed that while the case involved a single outsourcing decision, its scale and the number of employees affected distinguished it as a markedly significant contravention of workplace law. The court’s judgment also highlighted the central role of former chief executive officer Alan Joyce in the decision-making process, while noting the discomfort...