The union representing illegally sacked Qantas workers will return to court in coming days to seek compensation and a hefty penalty against the embattled airline.
The High Court ruled on Wednesday that Qantas’ decision to outsource 1700 jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic was illegal.
The unanimous judgment dismissed Qantas’ appeal against two previous rulings in the Federal Court, which found the outsourcing of baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff was unlawful.
Outside court, Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine said the sackings were the largest unlawful terminations in Australian corporate history.
Kaine said the union would return to court within days to pursue compensation and financial punishment of Qantas.
“They’re entitled to still be in their positions and therefore they need to be compensated for that,” he told reporters.
“We will seek penalties as well.
“It is important that there is a clear signal sent to employers in the future that this type of conduct should not occur.”
Kaine also called for departed Qantas chief Alan Joyce to be stripped of his “obscene” multimillions in bonuses.
Federal MP Bob Katter said he would push for an inquiry into the conduct of the Qantas board, which he described as the “slithering Sydney suits”.
“Now I want an inquiry into that board. I want a lot more than a sacking of that board,” Mr Katter said.
Retired Labor senator and ex-union boss Doug Cameron said Qantas was “done like a dinner”, and it was time for the board to go.
“The only regrets this board has is that it has now been found to have illegally sacked 1700 workers and is up for huge compensation claims from workers whose lives were devastated,” he tweeted.
“The Qantas board must go!”
Tweet from @DougCameron51
Qantas had sought to overturn rulings that it breached the Fair Work Act in outsourcing its ground operations to avoid enterprise bargaining rights, after the TWU took legal action against the carrier.
Sacked workers inside the courtroom pumped their fists in victory upon hearing the decision.
Damien Pollard, a sacked worker who had been with Qantas for decades, spoke of the emotional and financial toll.
“The last three years have been horrendous for my colleagues and myself,” he said with tears welling in his eyes.
“This is redemption for us today.”
The airline, which retrenched workers in 2020, lost billions of dollars during the pandemic, which decimated the aviation sector.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, who attended the judgment, urged parliamentarians to pass Labor’s “closing the loopholes” industrial relations legislation. She said it would stop such behaviour at its “source”.
Qantas said the decision to outsource the remainder of the airline’s ground-handling work was made in August 2020, when “borders were closed, lockdowns were in place and no COVID vaccine existed”.
“The likelihood of a years’ long crisis led Qantas to restructure its business to improve its ability to survive and ultimately recover,” it said in a statement.
“As we have said from the beginning, we deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologise for that.
“A prior decision by the Federal Court has ruled out reinstatement of workers but it will now consider penalties for the breach and compensation for relevant employees, which will factor in redundancy payments already made by Qantas.”
The airline posted an underlying profit of almost $2.5 billion for the past financial year.
