Australian court hands down record fine to Qantas for illegal dismissals during COVID-19

An Australian court has ordered Qantas Airways, the country's largest airline, to pay a record fine of A$90 million (over $58 million) for illegally dismissing 1,820 airport workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. About writes CNN.

The court also criticized the airline for its lack of sincere remorse: "I accept Qantas's apology, but I am not persuaded that this expression of regret is not, at least to a large extent, the wrong kind of apology."

Federal Court Judge Michael Lee noted that the fine, which amounts to about 75% of the maximum possible amount, is intended to show that violations of labor laws cannot be considered simply a "cost of doing business."

According to Lee, 50 million Australian dollars of the fine will be paid to the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which filed a lawsuit against Qantas.

Qantas announced that it would pay the fine and apologized to all the dismissed employees and their families.

During the pandemic in 2020, Qantas management decided to lay off 1,820 ground workers and outsource their work.

In 2021, the court found this to be "unfair practices" that violated employees' rights to associate and engage in trade union activities under the Australian Fair Work Act.

Judge Lee also criticized the company's litigation strategy, as well as its culture and PR approach.

For example, Qantas immediately appealed to the Supreme Court after the 2021 decision and tried to "retell" the court's findings without admitting its illegal behavior.

• In 2020, former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce laid off 1,700 employees to prevent strikes.
• On May 6, 2024, it was reported that qantas airline will pay $79 million through the sale of tickets for "ghost" flights.
• In August of the same year, former Qantas CEO found guilty of a reputational crisis and fined him $6 million.