TWU says Qantas ‘walking away’ from mediation

The Transport Workers Union will pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Qantas.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine has accused Qantas of walking away from court-ordered mediation.

The Transport Workers Union will pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Qantas on behalf of illegally sacked workers after accusing the airline of walking away from court-ordered mediation.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said Qantas under its new chief executive Vanessa Hudson was engaging in the “same spiteful tactics” as her ­predecessor Alan Joyce, despite a backlash from shareholders, ­customers and the public.

In September, the High Court upheld two previous rulings that the airline’s outsourcing of 1700 workers during the Covid pandemic was unlawful.

At the time, Qantas said it would reach out to the TWU “to discuss reaching agreement on a settlement for the people involved, as reasonably and quickly as possible”.

Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Ascui

Qantas also offered an apology to the workers affected, saying “we deeply regret the personal ­impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected”.

Mr Kaine said on Sunday that the union met with Ms Hudson where “she reiterated that she wanted to settle this as quickly as possible, (but) now we’re getting the run-around”.

“These people who are subject to the largest sackings in corporate history have suffered enough,” he said. “Qantas should be mediating five days a week to get this done and they’re not.”

In a statement on Sunday, Qantas said the TWU was “mischaracterising these discussions, not to mention breaching the strict confidentiality that applies to them”.

“We have not walked away from mediation and hope to reach an agreement in good faith, the company said. “We accept accountability for the outsourcing decision and we stand by what we said about wanting to resolve this quickly and fairly.”

If an agreement cannot be reached, the court has set a hearing on compensation for March.

The court process could take up to two years.

Mr Kaine said the union expressed dissatisfaction to Qantas last week about the mediation progress.

“We said to them last week, ‘enough’s enough’,” he said.

“They left the mediation and basically said, “no, we’re not in the territory to settle’ and then it was just left. We tried to contact them three or four times with no response. So last week we said to them we want a response from you about whether you are willing to mediate and we want it by close of business on Wednesday afternoon. Nothing.

“By the end of the week, there was a vanilla email from a lawyer saying the mediation is still open, but there is no willingness to even talk about a date. So as far as we’re concerned, they have walked away from it.”

Lawyers for the TWU have said they would seek to have the Federal Court order Qantas to pay a significant amount of ­compensation to the adversely impacted workers and pay a ­“significant” penalty for its unlawful conduct.

If the workers were individually compensated an average of $70,000, Qantas would face a bill of $112m. Potential penalties under the Fair Work Act would be as high as $100m.

Mr Kaine said the compensation would be much higher if the union’s arguments were accepted by the court.

“You are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars and that’s what we will be pursuing in court,” he said “We want to mediate but that’s what we will be pursuing in court.

“The illegal sackings led to marital breakdowns, serious mental and physical health conditions, and workers having to sell their homes or move in with family and friends. Roughly half of outsourced workers surveyed drew down their super to survive.

“Meanwhile, Qantas posted a record $2.5bn profit for the last ­financial year,” Mr Kaine said.