A judge on Monday fined Qantas Airways 90 million Australian dollars ($59 million) for illegally firing more than 1,800 ground staff at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The penalty is in addition to the A$120 million ($78 million) in compensation that Australia’s biggest airline had already agreed to pay its former employees.
Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handler and cleaner jobs at Australian airports in late 2020 was the “largest and most significant contravention” of relevant Australian labor laws in their 120-year history.
Qantas agreed in December last year to pay A$120 million ($78 million) in compensation to former staff after seven High Court judges unanimously rejected the Sydney-based airline’s appeal against the judgment that outsourcing their jobs was illegal.
The Transport Workers Union, which took the airline to court, had argued the airline should receive the largest fine available — A$121,212,000 ($78,969,735).
Lee ruled that the minimum fine to create a deterrence should be A$90 million ($59 million), noting that Qantas executives had expected to save A$125 million ($81 million) a year through outsourcing the jobs.
Lee questioned the sincerity of Qantas’s apology for its illegal conduct, noting that the airline later unsuccessfully argued that it owed no compensation to its former staff.
“If any further evidence was needed of the unrelenting and aggressive litigation strategy adopted in this case by Qantas, it is provided by this effort directed to denying any compensation whatsoever to those in respect of whom Qantas was publicly professing regret for their misfortune,” Lee said.
“I do think that the people in charge of Qantas now have some genuine regret, but this more likely reflects the damage that this case has done to the company rather than remorse for the damage done to the affected workers,” Lee added.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson, who was the airline’s chief financial officer during the layoffs, said in a statement after Monday’s decision: “We sincerely apologize to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result.”
“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,” she said.
“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,” she added.
Lee ruled that A$50 million ($33 million) of the fine go to the union, because no Australian government agency had shown interest in investigating or prosecuting Qantas.
“But for the union … , Qantas’ contravening conduct would never have been exposed and it would never have been held to account for its unlawful conduct,” Lee said.
“Hence the union has brought to the attention of the court a substantial and significant transgression of a public obligation by a powerful and substantial employer,” Lee added.
A hearing will be held at a later date to decide where the remaining A$40 million ($26 million) of the fine will go.