Qantas was warned that a legal challenge to outsourcing was ‘inevitable’

A Federal Court hearing to determine how much compensation should be paid to outsourced Qantas workers, has been told the airline was warned a legal challenge was inevitable.

A Federal Court hearing to determine what compensation should be paid to former Qantas ground handling workers whose jobs were unlawfully outsourced has been told the airline was warned early in the process that legal action was inevitable.

Giving evidence for a second day, former Qantas chief operating officer Colin Hughes, who was in charge of airport operations when the outsourcing occurred, said meetings with lawyers and industrial relations consultants were held in early June 2020.

The meetings discussed the certainty of a Transport Workers Union legal challenge to the outsourcing, because TWU national secretary Michael Kaine was “a lawyer who liked litigation”.

There was also discussion about the need for reasons for the outsourcing to be assessed by lawyers and a “decision maker” to be chosen.

Barrister Mark Gibian SC for the TWU said Herbert Smith Freehills partner Rohan Doyle told a meeting on June 1, 2020 “what the decision maker would ultimately say would be important in relation to the reasons”.

“Mr Doyle then said ‘it’s too early to give you a number on prospects’ – you understood that to be a reference to some sort of percentage prospect?” Mr Gibian said. “Yes that’s right,” Mr Hughes responded.

Justice Michael Lee asked Mr Hughes if it struck him as “a little odd that the concern was about what the decision maker says about the reasons, rather than saying what the reasons were”.

“It didn’t occur to me,” said Mr Hughes.

Discussion about who would be anointed the “decision maker” followed, with Mr Hughes suggesting that then chief operating officer Paul Jones seemed the most likely candidate.

“Paul is saying ‘I’ve done the work, logically I’m the right person and if it’s not me how far do you want to separate that out from the work that’s been done’,” said Mr Hughes.

Ultimately it was the then Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David who was named as the decision maker, although the court hearing made it clear former CEO Alan Joyce was involved through the process.