“Aviation is a broken industry”: Qantas’ outsourcing case heads to High Court

Melbourne, Australia - Jan 31st, 2020: QANTAS aircraft being reloaded for flight, at Tullamarine Airport. QANTAS is Australia’s largest airline and was founded in 1920, as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.
By James Harrison


Qantas has outdone the Transport Workers Union (TWU) in the latest round of a legal battle over the legality of the airline’s outsourcing decision made at the height of the pandemic.

This victory by the flying kangaroo means that the High Court has granted Qantas special leave to appeal the decision of the Federal Court. This ruling found Qantas’ outsourcing of more than 1600 workers to be unlawful.

In a press release published last week, Qantas said: “We welcome the High Court’s decision to grant leave to appeal and will work towards presenting our case next year”.

The airline said it will mount the “strongest possible case” in the High Court after two Federal Court rulings fell in the TWU’s favour, according to The Australian.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the decision to hear the appeal in the High Court exemplifies the airline’s enormous power.

“While it is deeply disappointing for workers, it’s clear the High Court believes it’s in the public interest to hear such an extraordinary case which has sent shockwaves across the economy and plunged Qantas into chaos,” Kaine 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.

“Aviation is a broken industry,” Kaine continued. “Under Joyce airports and aircraft have been stripped bare. Standards in aviation will continue to fall off a cliff if we allow excessive bonuses to be tied to the degradation of secure jobs and decent wages and conditions.”

The outsourcing decision was made in 2020 after Qantas grounded much of its fleet and stood down many workers. The airline argued that the outsourcing was motivated by commercial reasons – to save $100 million per year – but the Federal Court was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that this was the whole reason.

The airline’s spokesperson said that Qantas’ ability to remain solvent by legally outsourcing a function was at the core of its case.

“We’ve always expressed our deep regret that our ground handlers, and thousands more across the group, had to lose their jobs as the pandemic hit us,” said the spokesman.

“There was very little certainty about the pandemic and our recovery when we made this decision, and it remained that way for more than a year afterwards. We ultimately lost more than $25 billion in revenue, so it was inevitable that we had to take significant action.”

Image : iStock/DLMcK

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