The sacking of 1 700 ground and baggage staff by Australian airline Qantas, and the outsourcing of these jobs during the pandemic, has boomeranged and is likely to cost the airline dearly.
Australia’s seven High Court judges have ruled the sacking - the largest mass sacking in Australian history – as illegal.
The case was brought by the Transport Workers Union in a long legal battle in which two Federal Court rulings found that Qantas had breached Australia’s Fair Work Act, motivated by a desire to eliminate TWU members from bargaining and protected industrial action.
Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, welcomed the win: “Let this be a lesson to other companies looking to exploit workers for corporate greed – unions fight for workers, and unions win for workers.”
Qantas has seen huge challenges with its baggage handling over the past 18 months, according to Cotton.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has reported that since the mass sacking, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has seen complaints about Qantas and its services soar by 68% in 2022.
The legal battle will now return to Australia’s Federal Court where it will resume to determine how much compensation former Qantas workers will receive and what action will be taken against the airline.
“Qantas Airways posted a record $2.47 billion full-year underlying profit, because of strong post-Covid travel demand and high ticket prices. These levels of profit have paid for massive financial dividends for the board, while the workers who lost their jobs have had their lives devastated,” said Cotton.
