Australian airline Qantas has been ordered to pay a $90 million fine as part of a ‘historic’ settlement involving nearly 2,000 ground workers who were illegally sacked at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monday’s ruling by Australia’s Federal Court is in addition to $120 million in compensation that Qantas has already been forced to pay out to the 1,820 ground handling workers who lost their jobs in early 2020.
The case stems from a decision made by the now disgraced ex-Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce to outsource directly employed ground jobs like baggage handling to cheaper third-party vendors.
The workers were represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which fought a lengthy legal battle against the Australian flag carrier.
Early success in 2021, in which an employment tribunal ruled that the workers had indeed been illegally sacked, was initially rejected by Qantas, which appealed the verdict.
It took another two years for Qantas to accept the tribunal’s ruling, and only after Joyce left the airline under a cloud, as the airline was slammed for its post-pandemic operational performance.
Joyce’s replacement, Vanessa Hudson, has attempted to draw a line under the debacle, accepting responsibility for the illegal actions of her airline and apologizing to the workers for the way they were treated.
Following the latest ruling, Hudson commented: “The decision to outsource five years ago, particularly during such an uncertain time, caused genuine hardship for many of our former team and their families.”
“The impact was felt not only by those who lost their jobs, but by our entire workforce,” Hudson continued.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve worked hard to change the way we operate as part of our efforts to rebuild trust with our people and our customers. This remains our highest priority as we work to earn back the trust we lost.”
Nearly a year ago to the day, Joyce had $9.26 million wiped from his pre-departure annual bonus after the board concluded that he and other members of his management team made a series of mistakes that resulted in “significant reputational and customer service issues”.
Just weeks after Joyce stepped down from his role as CEO, the airline announced, much to the dismay of the TWU, that he was set to receive a bumper $21.4 million annual pay award.
At the time, Qantas was facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit from Australian regulators who had accused the airline of continuing to sell tickets for more than 8,000 flights that had already been cancelled.
Again, Qantas initially tried to fight the lawsuit, but when Hudson took the helm, she quickly reached a deal in which the airline agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and set up a $20 million customer remediation program.
