Qantas workers unlawfully retrenched during the COVID-19 pandemic may be about to move one step closer to receiving compensation from the national airline.
The Transport Workers' Union has pursued Qantas in the Federal Court after the company decided to outsource almost 1700 ground staff jobs in November 2020.
After redundancies commenced, these employees were eventually all jettisoned out of the airline by March 2021.
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In July 2021, Justice Michael Lee found the move was designed to deprive workers of being able to bargain for a new enterprise agreement and, as such, contravened employment law.
The matter then returned to the Federal Court in March and May where the judge heard submissions about how much three test case employees should be paid for the airline's contraventions.
Justice Lee will deliver his decision on this issue on Monday.
The amounts these workers receive is hoped to form the basis for the total amount that Qantas agrees to pay the affected staff in future negotiations with the TWU.
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The airline has argued the 1700 employees should not be compensated at all because they would have been made redundant in November 2020 anyway due to the state of the aviation industry during the pandemic.
Alternatively, it has said the workers deserve only limited recompense as they would have been let go in March 2021 after the more virulent delta strain spread through Australia and further lockdowns were imposed.
The TWU is also seeking penalties against Qantas, although these will be determined at a later date.
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In December 2021, Justice Lee rejected a bid by the union to have the workers reinstated at Qantas after finding that proposal was impractical.
The judge's findings that the terminations were unlawful were unsuccessfully appealed by Qantas in the Full Federal Court and High Court.
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