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Qantas has been fined $90m for illegally firing 1,820 baggage handlers and other ground staff in 2020, taking the cost of its controversial outsourcing decision to more than $200m.
Justice Michael Lee handed down his decision on the penalty on Monday, nine months after Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union agreed the airline would pay $120m in compensation to the sacked workers.
Reading his judgment in the federal court in Sydney on Monday, Lee said the $90m penalty was “slightly less than 75% off the maximum penalty”, and that $50m of the penalty would go to the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU).
Lee reserved his decision on who should receive the other $40m.
He described the lengthy legal battle between the TWU and Qantas as “no ordinary case” and said he had “hesitation in reaching a conclusion” as to whether Qantas was “truly contrite or rather engaging in performative remorse”.
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“I do think persons of responsibility within Qantas do now have some genuine regrets, but this more likely reflects the damage this case has done to the company, rather than a remorse for the damage done to the affected workers,” Lee said.
The TWU had sought the maximum penalty of $121m, while Qantas has urged Lee to impose a “mid-range” penalty of between $40m and $80m.
The penalty decision comes about nine months after Qantas and the TWU agreed on a $120m payout for the sacked workers.
Qantas is due to release its financial results for the past year on 28 August, and the true cost of the outsourcing saga has far eclipsed the $70m the carrier had previously budgeted to cover it.
The penalty decision also wraps up a five-year legal battle that began when the TWU took the airline to court, arguing the outsourcing was unlawful and motivated by the fact that many of the affected workers were union members with stronger bargaining power.
The federal court ruled in favour of the TWU and found the outsourcing contravened the Fair Work Act.
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Qantas appealed against the decision to the full bench of the federal court and later the high court – both of which were unsuccessful.
After losing its final appeal, the two parties spent more than a year in mediation and remedy hearings to determine how much Qantas would have to pay the outsourced workers for economic losses linked to lost wages.
Qantas last year also agreed to to a civil penalty of $100m and $20m in compensation for allegedly selling tens of thousands of tickets on flights that had already been cancelled.
More details soon …
