Australian flag carrier Qantas has agreed to set up an AU $120 million fund to compensate nearly 2,000 workers who were illegally sacked at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The decision comes just a few months after a court ordered the airline to pay $170,000 in compensation to three workers for non-economic losses in a test case to determine how much all the other workers should receive.
The workers were sacked at the height of the pandemic when then-CEO Alan Joyce decided to outsource jobs like baggage handling to cheaper third-party companies in a bid to save as much as $100 million a year.
In 2021, an employment tribunal ruled that the workers had been illegally sacked, but under the leadership of now-disgraced CEO Alan Joyce, the airline refused to accept the decision and attempted to appeal the ruling.
It wasn’t until Joyce was forced to resign in late 2023 after coming under intense public scrutiny for the airline’s poor operational performance and criticism of other pandemic-related policies that Qantas decided to accept the court’s decision.
The process of agreeing on what compensation individual workers should receive has, however, not been a simple one, and only last week, the TWU announced that court-ordered mediation yesterday to finalize payouts had broken down in failure.
But on Tuesday, Qantas said that it had reached an agreement with the Transport Workers Union (TWU) following a nearly four-year battle to challenge the outsourcing of 1,800 ground worker jobs.
“This is an important step in bringing closure to these individuals, and I want to reiterate our sincere apologies to those impacted and their families,” commented Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson.
“We know this has been a difficult period for those affected and are pleased we have been able to work closely with the TWU to expedite this process and resolve it ahead of Christmas,” Hudson continued.
The fund will be set up in early 2025 and will cover both economic and non-economic losses. In addition to paying compensation to the individual workers, some of the money will also be used to compensate the TWU.
Qantas also faces a multi-million-dollar fine over the debacle, although penalties are yet to be determined by a federal court.
