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Australia's highest court agrees Qantas illegally outsourced ground handling workforce
September 14th 2023
The High Court of Australia has upheld a lower court decision that Qantas Group illegally outsourced about 1,700 ground handling jobs in 2020. Read More » The airline group’s appeal against the Federal Court of Australia judgement was unanimously dismissed by the High Court on September 13. Australia's Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents the 1,700 workers, said it will seek significant compensation from Qantas. “Qantas workers have made history today,” TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said. “It has been three years and 20 days since [former CEO] Alan Joyce announced the airline company’s decision to outsource these workers and they have not stopped fighting for a moment to ensure justice was served.” Qantas acknowledged and accepted the High Court decision. “The decision to outsource the remainder of the airline’s ground handling function was made in August 2020 when borders were closed, lockdowns were in place and no COVID vaccine existed,” Qantas said. “As we have said from the beginning, we deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologise for that.”
