Back Story
In November 2021 Qantas implemented a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for all of its employees. Under this policy, frontline workers, including ground staff, were required to be fully vaccinated by November 15, 2021, while the rest of the employees were given until March 31, 2022 to comply. Qantas made it clear that employees who chose not to get vaccinated and did not have a valid medical exemption would face potential job termination or would need to leave the industry.
How’s it going?
Qantas is facing $200 million in compensation and penalties.
Qantas has apologised to workers unlawfully retrenched during the COVID-19 pandemic as the airline faces calls to pay over $200 million in compensation and penalties.
The Transport Workers’ Union had a major win in the Federal Court on Monday after deciding to pursue Qantas over its decision to outsource almost 1700 ground staff jobs in November 2020.
After redundancies commenced, these employees were eventually all jettisoned from the airline by March 2021.
Justice Michael Lee on Monday ordered Qantas pay $170,000 in non-economic loss to cover the hurt and distress suffered by three test-case employees, Christopher Carney, Nicholas Bennett and Leonie Piggott.
The decision paves the way for compensation for other sacked workers following a long and bitterly fought legal battle that Qantas unsuccessfully took to the High Court.
In July 2021, Justice Lee found the lay-offs were designed to deprive workers of being able to bargain for a new enterprise agreement and, as such, contravened employment law.
In his 74-page judgment on Monday, he found the workers would have been retrenched by late 2021 anyway given that the airline’s “laser-like” focus on cutting costs while failing to prioritise its workers’ continued employment.
The judge awarded Mr Carney and Ms Piggott $30,000 and $40,000 respectively due to their hurt, humiliation and psychological distress from being made redundant.
Source: In Queensland/Monit
