Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has come under fire from labour for trying to overturn a unanimous Federal Court ruling that it illegally sacked and outsourced 2,000 workers.

The airline has applied for leave to appeal with the High Court of Australia – the country's highest court - just weeks after four Federal Court judges unanimously upheld a February Federal Court ruling that Qantas had breached the Fair Work Act by outsourcing workers to prevent them from exercising their rights to bargain and take industrial action.

The Australian Trade Workers' Union (TWU) has slammed the airline for engaging in an "exorbitant drawn-out legal battle", which it charged was "another callous tactic by the airline to target workers prepared to stand up against the corporate bully and fight collectively for fair pay and conditions at the airline".

According to the TWU, Qantas' High Court appeal application coincides with the first day of preliminary roundtable discussions about compensation for the affected workers. However, in a statement, the airline said the Federal Court judgment did not mean it was required to pay compensation or penalties. "We will be asking the [Federal] Court to stay any further hearings on this issue until after the High Court process."

"Qantas has always said the decision to outsource our ground handling function was based on lawful commercial reasons in response to the unprecedented impact of the COVID crisis," the airline said. "Prior to the pandemic, Qantas was actively recruiting into its ground handling function and investing in new equipment – a sign that we had no intention of outsourcing."

It stated the reasons for the outsourcing had been as follows:

  • Using specialised ground handling companies could save Qantas more than AUD100 million Australian dollars (USD72 million) a year – savings needed as part of its recovery from COVID;
  • It would remove the need for Qantas to spend AUD80 million (USD57 million) over five years on necessary ground handling equipment like tugs and baggage loaders;
  • Outsourcing would allow resources to be better matched with fluctuating demand levels.

TWU previously called for the resignation of Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce and key outsourcing decision-maker Chief Executive of Domestic and International Andrew David for their roles in the labour decision.

"Enough is enough. Qantas should drop its appeal, accept its wrongdoing, and begin the work of earning back Australia's trust by fairly compensating workers for the jobs they unlawfully stole from them. If management won't do the right thing, the Qantas Board should intervene and save the airline from itself," TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said in a statement.

For its part, Qantas accused TWU of pushing "a lot of misinformation on this issue". "Before the pandemic, we had outsourced ground handling in 55 of the 65 Australian airports we operated from. During the pandemic, we outsourced the ground handling at the remaining ten airports."

The case revolves around the airline's decision in early 2021 to outsource ground handling operations at the ten Australian airports where it was still running them in-house, including Adelaide International, Brisbane International, and Melbourne Tullamarine, which resulted in the 2,000 redundancies.