Australia’s Qantas loses appeal in workforce outsourcing case

(Reuters) – The High Court of Australia on Wednesday dismissed a Qantas Airways Ltd’s appeal against a ruling that found the airline breached law by firing nearly 1,700 ground handlers during the pandemic, according to a judicial filing.

The airline had appealed against a Federal Court ruling that found Qantas of having breached the Fair Work Act, which protects certain workplace rights including the right to engage in industrial action.

Qantas’ actions were allegedly motivated to prevent the employees in question from engaging in industrial activity.

The flagship carrier, which had run billions of dollars in losses owing to the pandemic, claimed to have retrenched workers to save costs and cancel out any extraneous spending.

Qantas took its action to “prevent the affected employees from exercising workplace rights to organise and engage in protected industrial action and to participate in bargaining”, the High Court said in its judgment.

“Qantas contravened the (Fair Work) Act, which provides that a person must not take adverse action against another person ‘to prevent the exercise of a workplace right by the other person’,” the High Court said.

Qantas said in a statement it “acknowledges and accepts” the High Court’s decision.