Qantas battling workers’ union over illegal outsourcing compensation

Qantas had a “laser-like” focus on cost cutting before illegal Covid era outsourcing, a court has heard.

Embattled national airline Qantas had a “laser-like focus on saving money by any means” before they unlawfully sacked ground service staff, a court has been told.

The flying kangaroo was thrice found to have acted unlawfully when it fired 1700 staff in favour of outsourced contractors during the height of the Covid pandemic.

Qantas returned to the Federal Court on Wednesday as it battles the Transport Workers Union over the amount of compensation to be paid to former staffers.

Debate largely focused on counterfactuals presented by both Qantas and the TWU, which seek to establish what would have happened had the staff not been outsourced.

Qantas’ lawyer said evidence presented to the court showed the decision would have likely been made in 2021, the following year, given the ongoing Covid pandemic.

Qantas is in court over illegal outsourcing compensation. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ben Clark

“They were staring into the abyss at that time. They had already suffered a calamitous loss, and were looking at least four months of dramatic losses,” they said.

“The unfortunate reality is that 2021 turned out to be very similar to 2020. The fundamentals of the risk-to-reward calculus were not at all materially different.

“The commercial benefits were more important and urgent (in 2021) than they were in 2020 (and) the risk factors were not considered materially different”.

The court was told it had “special insight” because Qantas’ experience in 2021 “mirrored” that of 2020, and that it would have moved to outsource in August of that year.

In reply, lawyers for the TWU said Qantas was improving its cash flow through domestic flights in early-2021 and in “post-Delta” media releases said no one would be sacked.

Justice Michael Lee disputed those assertions, saying there would be “limited availability” to examine decisions made in 2021 because savings had already been made by outsourcing.

For his part, Justice Lee said Qantas was “come hell or high water, by any means (or) any advice, going to be laser-like focused on saving money by whatever means”.

“Qantas was intent to do everything it could to save money irrespective of how it affected employees. If it saved money to get rid of them, they got rid of them,” he said.

Former Qantas COO Colin Hughes earlier gave evidence in court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

A range of evidence from the time the decision was made, as well as affidavits and evidence from high-ranking executives, was presented at earlier hearings.

Among them were former Qantas airport executive general manager, Colin Hughes, and former Qantas CEO of Domestic and International, Andrew David.

Justice Lee questioned whether Qantas had sought to ensure “documentary record supported the seasons identified as being sound and defendable” in court.

He went on to claim Qantas had considered who the “decision-maker” would be in regard to who would have been best positioned to whether scrutiny.

Disputing the claim, Qantas’ lawyer said the discussion took place in a context when they knew it would be tested in court, and was not an “artificial creation of reasons”.

The hearing will continue on Thursday, with Justice Lee to hear evidence into calculations regarding compensation and the reply from TWU’s lawyers.

Originally published as Qantas battling workers’ union over illegal outsourcing compensation