Qantas outsourcing decision goes before High Court
Qantas’s decision to outsource its ground handling operations goes before the High Court this week to judge once and for all if the airline acted within the law.
Business
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Two days of High Court hearings begin on Tuesday to determine whether Qantas acted illegally when it outsourced the jobs of more than 1600 below-the-wing workers.
The Transport Workers Union took legal action against the airline following the decision in late 2020, claiming Qantas was motivated by high union representation among the workforce and the desire to prevent future industrial action.
Qantas claimed the decision was solely intended to deliver savings of $100m a year at a time when the airline was experiencing great financial hardship due to the Covid crisis.
The Federal Court twice found in favour of the TWU, ruling that there was reasonable doubt about Qantas’s motivations in the matter.
However, the courts rejected the TWU’s call to reinstate the workers, due to the complexity of the matter.
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the fact the High Court had agreed to hear the case highlighted the “significance and enormity of this matter”.
“Whatever the outcome, workers must be applauded for their courage,” Mr Kaine said.
“Their commitment to justice has sent a warning signal to employers up and down the country. Working people will not stand for their jobs being deliberately splintered and sold off to the lowest common denominator.”
A Qantas spokesman said the Federal Court accepted the airline had “lawful and compelling reasons” to make the outsourcing decision but was not convinced that preventing protected industrial action was not part of the motivation.
“We have always rejected this, which is why we taking our appeal to the High Court,” said the spokesman.
“We’ve always acknowledged that it would have been very tough on our ground handlers and the thousands of other employees who lost jobs because of the pandemic.”
Mr Kaine said that as well as workers, passengers had suffered the consequences of the outsourcing decision through the loss of experience and loyalty in the areas of baggage and ground handling.
Qantas denied the outsourcing was connected to performance issues the airline experienced last year, including a rise in lost bags and marathon waits at baggage carousels.
Those issues have since been rectified as contracted ground handling companies such as Swissport, dnata and Menzies rebuilt their own workforces post-Covid.
Whatever the High Court rules, the matter will eventually return to the Federal Court to decide on any penalty and costs, with the losing side set to face a massive legal bill.
Originally published as Qantas outsourcing decision goes before High Court
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