The High Court has granted Qantas special leave to appeal two Federal Court findings which concluded that nearly 2000 staff had been sacked in a deliberate effort to avoid staff exercising enterprise bargaining rights.
The TWU members who have been fighting against Qantas’ illegal outsourcing for more than two years will continue to hold the company to account.
TWU members are pushing back against Qantas’ frequent attacks on its own workforce and systemic abuse and exploitation of our broken workplace relations system.
Cases like this are a clear demonstration of the need for more effective workplace laws and stronger rights for working people.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
“Qantas received a huge amount of public financial support during the pandemic, but in return has stripped rights and wages from employees and hollowed out services to maximise profits and executive bonusses.
“Alan Joyce should be spending more time working out how to provide Australian tax payers something to show for their massive investment in his company, rather than arguing against better rights for his workers in Parliament.
“Under Joyce, Qantas has become an industry leader in gaming the system and padding executive pockets with public money. This is a company that took $856 million in JobKeeper during the pandemic, but has continued to cut pay, jobs and services.
“Businesses like Qantas are exactly why we need to update and modernise our workplace laws. These big employers have managed to find all the loopholes and gaps in our laws, and working people are suffering as a result.
“Qantas has mastered the art of avoiding its obligations to its workers and using complex legal manoeuvres to strip their rights and lower their wages. This has to end.”
