An employee of Qantas airline, photographed during checks at an Airbus A380 aircraft, photo: Remy Gabalada / AFP / Profimedia Images
Qantas Airways, Australia National Airline and the largest air carrier in the country, was fined 90 million Australian dollars (584 million US dollars) for illegal dismissal of 1,800 soil employees and replacing them during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Reuters agency reports on Monday.
When applying the sanction close to the maximum stipulated for the violation of the labor law in Australia, the Federal Court of Australia said that the fine is meant to ensure that it could not be perceived as a simple cost of a business. “
The fine is at the same time the largest financial sanction ever imposed on an Australian company based on “Fair Work Act”, the legislation that establishes the rules for employers and employees in Australia.
“At present, my goal is to achieve a real discouragement (including a general discouragement for the big public companies that could be tempted to 'escape' with illegal behavior, because the benefits could exceed the negative risks of effective corrective measures),” noted Judge Michael Lee.
He said that 50 million Australian dollars in the fine will be paid to the Transport Workers' Union, who filed the trial on behalf of the 1,820 employees fired by Qantas during the pandemic.
Qantas has expressed regrets to dismissed employees
The court's decision comes about nine months after Qantas and the union agreed on an amicable $ 120 million Australian understanding for the compensation of the dismissed workers.
The price of Qantas shares has dropped slightly in the transactions after opening the stock exchange.
The airline said in a statement quoted by the BBC on Monday that he agreed to pay the fine now established by the court and that the decision is responsible for actions that caused “real damages” to its employees.
“We apologize to each of the 1,820 employees from the ground and their families, who have suffered as a result,” said Vanessa Hudson, the director of the Qantas group.
“The outsourcing decision, made five years ago-especially in such an uncertain period-caused real weights for many of our former colleagues and their families,” she said.
A “David against Goliath” legal battle
The national air carrier of Australia has faced a legal battle for several years related to his 2020 decision to outsource the personnel of the soil operations, which he claimed was a necessary financial measure, given the collapse of the aviation industry during the pandemic.
The decision marks “the end of a five-year battle, in the David style against Goliath”, and represents “a moment of justice for the loyal workers who loved their jobs in the airline,” said the union that represents them in a statement.
In pronouncing the decision, Judge Lee questioned the corporate culture of Qantas and if the company's remorse are authentic.
He noted the legal strategy “unkind and aggressive” of the company as a sign of previous efforts to avoid the payment of any compensation to the dismissed employees.
In 2021, the court found that Qantas partially outsource its workforce to limit the union actions as many of the dismissed employees were union members.
