Qantas Airline has been fined a record $90 million for illegally firing 1,820 baggage handlers and other ground staff in 2020. A lawyer for the Transport Workers’ Union called the penalty the “darkest day” in the airline’s 105-year history.
Qantas Airlines was fined $90 million for illegally firing 1,820 baggage handlers and other ground staff in 2020. Justice Michael Lee handed down the decision on the penalty this week, nine months after Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) agreed that the airline would pay $120 million in compensation to the workers, making the total cost of the firings over $200 million.
Lee stated that the $90 million penalty was “slightly less than 75% of the maximum penalty,” and that $50 million of the penalty would go to the TWU.
He continued to say that allocating a significant proportion of the fine would motivate unions to pursue potential breaches of the Enhance the Fair Work Act.
“It will send a message to Qantas and other well-resourced employers that not only will they face potentially significant penalties for the breach of the act, but those penalties will be provided to trade unions to resource [them] to fulfil their statutory roles as enforcers of the act,” he said.
Lee continued to describe the legal battle between the TWU and Qantas as “no ordinary case, [I had] hesitation in reaching a conclusion” regarding if Qantas was “truly contrite or rather engaging in performative remorse.”
“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.”
“[I felt a] sense of disquiet and uncertainty as to precisely what went on within the upper echelons of Qantas leading up to the outsourcing decision, [the airline gave] the wrong kind of sorry,” Lee said.
Lee also stated that the airline’s attempt to obscure their decision-making process behind the outsourcing of the positions and the role that the chief executive officer, Alan Joyce, played. He said that Qantas handled their legal process poorly by stating their PR department had “rushed” into sending out a press release to “spin” the court decisions.
Vanessa Hudson, Qantas former chief financial officer and now chief executive, didn’t testify in court, which also made Lee skeptical, stating that her evidence would’ve assisted him in assessing whether the airline’s promise of cultural change was genuine.
Hudson said: “We sincerely apologise to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result. Over the past 18 months we’ve worked hard to change the way we operate … This remains our highest priority as we work to earn back the trust we lost.”
The $90 million penalty will be paid in accordance with the orders of the court, a major win according to the TWU national secretary Michael Kaine.
“The union has won a David and Goliath battle and secured the most significant industrial outcome in Australia’s history. We will keep fighting our industrial fights.”
Kaine explained that the union will submit to the court that the unallocated $40 million of the $90 million fine should go to additional support for the workers who were impacted.
For example, Anne Guirguis cleaned international aircrafts for the airline before her firing, and told the media that she felt “relief” over the court’s decision. “All over the age of 50, it is impossible.
Don Dixon, who was a Qantas baggage handler, echoed Guirgui’s sentiment: “It is difficult getting a job at our age now, most people are 60 or above. To be retrained at this time in your life and go to an employer and say ‘I was 20 years plus working for formerly the greatest company in this country … I service an aircraft, do you happen to have a plane?’”
The penalty decision finalizes a five-year legal battle that began when the union initially took Qantas to court to argue that the firings were unlawful.
New South Wales Labor senator Tony Sheldon, a former TWU national secretary and longtime Qantas adversary, said “the $90m penalty against the airline confirmed workers had been sacked in a ruthless, calculated act of corporate cost-cutting.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
