Australian Federal Court Fines Qantas Airways $59 Million for Illegal Layoffs During COVID-19 Pandemic

The Australian Federal Court has fined Qantas Airways for 59 million US dollars for illegally laying off more than 1,800 ground staff at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The penalty is in addition to the 78 million US dollars in compensation that Australia’s biggest airline had already agreed to pay its former employees.
 
Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said, the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handler and cleaner jobs at Australian airports in late 2020 was the largest and most significant contravention of relevant Australian labor laws in their 120-year history. Qantas agreed in December 2024 to pay 78 million US dollars in compensation to former staff after seven High Court judges unanimously rejected the Sydney-based airline’s appeal against the judgment that outsourcing their jobs was illegal.
 
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a consumer watchdog, sued the airline in the Federal Court alleging that Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights from May 2021 through to July 2022 that had already been canceled.