Airline giant Qantas will face a $90 million penalty over its decision to illegally outsource 1,800 ground handling jobs during the COVID pandemic.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said on Monday the penalty must “bear some resemblance” to the maximum $121 million — and should be no less than $90 million, which is 75 per cent of the maximum.
He said $50 million of the penalty should be paid to the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
It follows a 2020 decision by Qantas to outsource its ground handling workforce, which the Federal Court later found to be illegal.
The TWU had called for the airline to be fined a maximum of $121 million, in addition to the $120 million in compensation it’s required to pay the affected employees.
Justice Lee said Qantas had shown the “wrong kind of sorry”, whereby it worried more about the impact on the company rather than the impact the case had on the illegally sacked workers.
He noted that that the airline’s chief people officer, Catherine Walsh, apologised for the company’s behaviour during hearings, but “it seemed to be obvious that the person who could give the most direct and compelling evidence of corporate change and contrition” was CEO Vanessa Hudson.
“I accept that Miss Walsh is a sincere and competent professional who will do her personal best to prevent a re-occurrence of contravening conduct. As the person responsible for industrial relations, she now reports directly to the CEO,” Justice Lee said.
“But given the extent of the cultural problem revealed by this case, I would have been much more persuaded (about) the genuineness of contrition if her evidence had been supplemented by a member of senior management who was present when the proposal was socialised and evaluated, and explained why things went so wrong, how they had been converted in new ways of doing things, and how lessons have been learnt.
“Time will only tell whether the undoubted good intentions of Miss Walsh will prevail. The scope of the task … not to be underestimated. The strategy adopted by Qantas at the compensation hearing rather suggested an industrial relations culture that has very deep, very deep roots. Despite high level representations of change following the departure of some key personnel in 2023.”
Justice Lee said while Qantas ended up later expressing “genuine regrets”, that “this more likely reflects the damage this case has done at the company rather than unique remorse for the damage done to the affected workers”.
He said the airline “resisted until it could resist no more”.
“And, as on multiple occasions prior to this hearing, sought to explain the way as representing no moral or ethical failure.”