An Australian court sentenced Qantas on Monday to pay 50 million euros due to the dismissal considered illegal of about 1,800 members of his land staff during the Cavid pandemic. The judge of the Federal Court, Michael Lee, declared that this decision was intended to constitute a “real deterrence” for employers who would be tempted to break the labor law.
Of these 50 million euros, 28 million will go to the union of transport workers. The other 22 million will be destined for future payments to former Qantas employees.
This decision ends a legal battle of several years between the unions and the airline. Qantas had decided to return these workers and call the subcontracting in August 2020, while the air transport sector faced generalized borders and containment measures against Covid, for which vaccine had not yet been developed.
The Federal Court had already tried that Qantas had acted illegally, since it had prevented the members of their staff from exercising their rights to carry out a collective negotiation and strike. The court then rejected the company’s call. These 50 million euros are added to about 67 million euros in compensation that Qantas agreed last year to pay the attention of its former employees.
Negative criticism and canceled flights
104 years and nicknamed “The spirit of Australia”, the airline seeks to rebuild, after these mass dismissals, the increase in their prices, negative criticisms of the quality of their services or the sale of tickets on flights still canceled. Its general manager Vanessa Hudson, who assumed the position in 2023, promised an improvement in customer satisfaction.
In a statement, Qantas announced that it would pay the 50 million euros requested by the Federal Court. “The decision to outsource five years ago, particularly at a time full of uncertainties, caused real difficulties in many of our former colleagues and their families,” said Vanessa Hudson in this press release. “We are presenting our sincere apologies to each of the 1,820 employees they handle,” he added.
After “five long years, today is a victory day, not only for our colleagues but also for all Australian workers,” said Anne Guirguis, who cleaned the company’s airplanes for 27 years before being returned. “We can close this chapter and now move on,” he told the press outside the court.
The National Secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Michael Kaine, applauded the decision, a “final victory” for the former company workers, of which “many discovered by a speaker in the lunch room had lost their job,” said Michael Kaine.
Source: BFM TV
