The High Court judgment handed down on Wednesday upheld two rulings made by the Federal Court, which discovered the outsourcing of bags handlers, cleaners and floor workers was illegal.
Justices Kiefel, Gageler, Gleeson and Jagot stated within the judgment anybody who took “adverse action against another person for a substantial and operative reason of preventing the exercise of a workplace right by the other person contravenes (part of section 340 of the Fair Work Act) … regardless of whether that other person has the relevant workplace right at the time the adverse action is taken”.
“Qantas did not avoid the operation of (the section) in relation to its adverse action by taking the action prior to the existence of the workplace rights the exercise of which Qantas sought to thwart.”
The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which introduced the authorized motion, stated the Qantas board required an overhaul following the ruling, together with the departure of chairman Richard Goyder.
“The airline cannot achieve the reset necessary for its survival under the same board that resided over the largest case of illegal sackings in Australian corporate history,” TWU nationwide secretary Michael Kaine stated.
“Richard Goyder cannot make it through another day as chair.
“Qantas wants a recent begin. A employee voice on the board would make a big distinction and ship the suitable sign that Qantas is severe about getting again on monitor.”
Sacked workers inside the courtroom pumped their fists in victory upon hearing the High Court’s decision.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, who attended the judgment, posted a celebratory photo on social media saying: “The employees win towards Qantas within the High Court. We will at all times have the backs of employees.”
Qantas was found in the Federal Court to have breached the Fair Work Act in outsourcing its ground operations to avoid enterprise bargaining rights, after the TWU took legal action against the carrier.
The airline, which retrenched workers in 2020, lost billions of dollars due to the pandemic, which decimated the aviation sector.
Justin Gleeson SC for Qantas, told the High Court in May the airline’s revenue stream had been shattered by the pandemic which left it “bleeding money”.
The airline has since posted an underlying profit of almost $2.5 billion in the past financial year.
Qantas argued it could not have breached the workplace rights of the employees, as they did not have the right to take protected industrial action at the time of the decision to outsource.
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In a statement, Qantas apologised for the “private impression” of the decision to sack the workers.
“Qantas acknowledges and accepts the High Court’s resolution to uphold two prior rulings by the Federal Court relating to the legality of outsourcing the rest of the airline’s floor dealing with operate in 2020,” the airline said.
“The Federal Court initially discovered that whereas there have been legitimate and lawful business causes for the outsourcing, it couldn’t rule out that Qantas additionally had an illegal motive – specifically, avoiding future industrial motion.
“The High Court has now effectively upheld this interpretation.
“The resolution to outsource the rest of the airline’s floor dealing with operate was made in August 2020, when borders had been closed, lockdowns had been 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.
“As now we have stated from the start, we deeply remorse the non-public impression the outsourcing resolution had on all these 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.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
