Qantas given green light to appeal court ruling that outsourcing baggage handlers was illegal

Qantas has secured a win in its fight against a court ruling that sacking baggage handlers during the pandemic was unlawful.

Qantas has been given the green light to fight a court ruling that its sacking of about 1700 ground crew workers during the Covid-19 pandemic was illegal.

The High Court on Friday granted the national carrier special leave to appeal against rulings from both the Federal Court and Full Federal Court that the outsourcing was unlawful.

Qantas outsourced baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners in late 2020 at a time when thousands of other staff were stood down and much of its fleet was grounded due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The TWU launched legal proceedings in the Federal Court against the airline over the outsourcing decision and won a partial victory in July 2021.

Qantas has secured a legal win in its protracted battle with the TWU. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The Federal Court found the outsourcing was partially motivated by a desire to avoid future industrial action, in breach of the Fair Work Act, given many of the sacked workers were union members with stronger bargaining capability.

The High Court’s decision on Friday means the protracted fight between Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union will enter its third year.

TWU National secretary Michael Kaine said the union would “mount the strongest possible case” in the High Court following the outcome of Friday’s hearing.

“Although they’ve faced an agonising couple of years, our members will continue to fight on to prove once and for all that Qantas broke the law,” he said.

“Despite the ongoing crisis at the airline, overpaid executives stand by their illegal actions so vehemently they are dragging out a costly legal battle rather than reinstate or compensate the experienced workers who built the Spirit of Australia.”

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has overseen an aggressive cost-cutting strategy during his time at the helm of the airline. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

A Qantas spokesman welcomed the High Court’s decision to hear its appeal, insisting that the outsourcing was legal and necessary to save more than $100m a year when the airline was struggling to remain solvent.

“The Federal Court agreed with our commercial reasons but could not rule out that avoiding future industrial action was also a factor in the outsourcing,” he said.

“We have always rejected this, which is why are taking our appeal to the High Court.”

Qantas vowed to take its case to the High Court in May this year after the full bench of the Federal Court unanimously rejected the airline’s first appeal against the ruling.

However, the Federal Court judges also rejected the TWU’s cross appeal that the fired workers should get their jobs back, in part because of the significant cost to Qantas and the airline having dissolved the subsidiary company that had employed them.

Qantas has struggled with a shortage of baggage handlers since it outsourced its own ground crews and replaced some of them with staff contracted from labour hire companies.