Qantas聽lost its appeal against a previous Federal Court decision in a landmark case on May 4. The full bench decision by the court found Qantas鈥 outsourcing of nearly 2000 ground crew workers was illegal.
Qantas revealed in August 2020, during the pandemic,聽it would outsource its ground-handling operations at 10 airports to third party contractors. As a result, 1683 workers lost their jobs.
In one of the largest reinstatement cases ever heard, last year the Federal Court found in favour of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) against Qantas, challenging the airline鈥檚 outsourcing of baggage-handling and cleaning jobs.
Qantas鈥櫬燼ppeal of that decision was dismissed by the full Federal Court that found聽Qantas was in breach of the Fair Work Act.
The company is planning to appeal to the High Court. If it loses it could be liable for hefty costs, including compensating the sacked workers.
In a parallel ruling, the Federal Court last December rejected the TWU鈥檚 application to reinstate the baggage-handling and cleaning jobs. The Federal Court judge found that if the affected employees were reinstated,聽Qantas聽would, as soon as it could, retrench them.
The full Federal Court judges agreed on May 4 and rejected the TWU鈥檚 cross-appeal that the workers should be reinstated. The TWU is now calling for compensation for the workers. It is also calling on the聽Qantas聽board to sack chief executive Alan Joyce, the key decision-maker in the outsourcing case, and the domestic and international chief executive Andrew David.
TWU national secretary on their second win and said the overpaid Qantas executives should be sacked.
鈥淎fter a horror 18-months, having lifelong careers savagely and illegally ripped away from them, workers stood tall and took on one of the harshest and most powerful companies in the country,鈥 Kaine said.
A unanimous decision from four Federal Court judges is 鈥渆mphatic鈥,聽he said. 鈥淨antas聽executives deliberately targeted and attacked workers and broke the law in sacking them to prevent them exercising their rights. Safety, service and sentiment for the airline have all plummeted over this unlawful decision to outsource. There is only one appropriate response from the聽Qantas聽board 鈥斅爃eads must roll.鈥
Kaine said it was a 鈥渇lawed legal system鈥 that can find a corporate giant has broken the law but not be able to reverse it by giving workers their jobs back.
鈥淨antas聽operates on the edge of the law. With deep pockets full of unconditional taxpayer funding delivered by [Prime Minister] Scott Morrison, slap-on-the-wrist fines will not deter聽Qantas聽from its line of attack on wages and conditions鈥
鈥淭he failure of the Morrison government to implement a national aviation plan or hold聽Qantas聽to account for its actions shows how great the need for the next government to establish an independent aviation commission to protect airport jobs, safety and service,鈥 Kaine said.
The TWU said it would use the win to push its 鈥淪ame Job, Same Pay鈥 campaign. 鈥淣o matter if you鈥檙e working directly for Qantas, or for Swissport or Menzies, you should be paid the same money for the same work.鈥
A survey of outsourced Qantas workers showed three quarters have not been able to secure full-time work.聽
[Sign an appeal to urgently give these workers their jobs back .]