A judge on Monday fined Qantas Airways 90 million Australian dollars ($58.64 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 AU$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, reports AP.
Qantas agreed in December last year to pay AU$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.
Lee ruled that the minimum fine to create a deterrence should be AU$90 million ($59 million), noting that Qantas executives had expected to save AU$125 million ($81 million) a year through outsourcing the jobs.
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 apologise 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.
The Transport Workers Union, which took the airline to court, had argued the airline should receive the largest fine available — AU$121,212,000 ($78,969,735).
Lee ruled that AU$50 million ($33 million) of the fine go to the union, because no Australian government agency had shown interest in investigating or prosecuting Qantas.
A hearing will be held at a later date to decide where the remaining AU$40 million ($26 million) of the fine will go.
Qantas has admitted illegally dealing with passengers as well as employees in its responses to pandemic economic challenges.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a consumer watchdog, sued the airline in the Federal Court alleging that Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights from May 2021 through to July 2022 that had already been cancelled.