High Court upholds ruling finding Qantas illegally sacked workers during pandemic

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Qantas has issued its first-ever apology to workers after the High Court upheld a ruling finding the airline illegally sacked 1,700 ground crew staff members during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Transcript

00:00 Qantas maintained it had to outsource the jobs for commercial reasons, but the union

00:07 argued the motivation was to avoid industrial action when things returned to normal, which

00:13 breached the Fair Work Act.

00:16 Today, the workers emerged triumphant.

00:21 The Court of Public Opinion already handed down their decision on Qantas. What we want

00:26 to see is this, we want to see Qantas restore respect for both their customers and the workforce.

00:33 For those who lost their jobs, it was a moment of sweetness after three years of stress.

00:42 This really is a brilliant vibe isn't it? You know, to have a win.

00:46 Fairy tales come true.

00:48 We loved Qantas, the people behind me, the workers that stood there made sure that your

00:51 airline was the safest in the world. It's not the safest in the world anymore, but let's

00:55 hope it gets back to there.

00:57 Qantas has acknowledged the ruling in a statement, and that it will have to pay penalties and

01:02 compensation to the workers. The union says it hopes to bring the case on in the Federal

01:08 Court within days.

01:09 [END]

01:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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