Qantas lashed for ‘hollow’ apology after almost 2,000 workers were axed from the airline in biggest case of illegal sacking in Australia’s history

By ABE MADDISON FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOSCIATED PRESS

Published: 08:02 BST, 20 May 2025 | Updated: 09:58 BST, 20 May 2025

An apology by Qantas for sacking 1,820 ground crew rings ‘wholly hollow’ and it has failed to make changes that ensure such actions never happen again, a judge has been told.

In the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday, Justice Michael Lee continued hearing submissions on the penalty to be imposed on Qantas for the biggest case of illegal sackings in Australian history. 

Last October, Justice Lee ordered Qantas to pay $120million to the ground staff as compensation for their economic loss, pain and suffering since their jobs were outsourced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Transport Workers Union is seeking that he impose the maximum penalty of $121million and order that the money be paid to the union.

Noel Hutley SC, for the union, told Justice Lee that he should reject Qantas’ submission that after four-and-a-half years of litigation, it was now contrite.

‘Your Honour will not brush aside, as Qantas urges in its submissions, its vehement and regular denials of wrongdoing (and) its rejection of Your Honour’s findings, which persisted all the way to the High Court,’ he said.

‘These reveal an attitude of adamantine self-righteousness.’

Since the High Court ruled against Qantas’ appeal no senior executive of the airline had publicly accepted it broke the law or Justice Lee’s conclusions until Monday, Mr Hutley said. 

Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce left on controversial terms after the airline was accused of illegally sacking ground crew during Covid and selling tickets on already cancelled flights

The Federal Court is deciding what penalty to impose on the airline (a Qantas plane is pictured)

‘The contrition rings wholly hollow.’

There had been ‘a profound failure’ within Qantas ‘to come to terms with what needs to occur to avoid these things happening again’, he said.

The court should order that the penalty be paid to the TWU, which had taken on enormous risks and burdens to fight the sackings, Mr Hutley said.

‘If the penalty is paid to my client, my client is an organisation charged with advancing the interests of its members… and the money would be applied to the proper purposes of the organisation.’

On Monday, Qantas chief people officer Catherine Walsh told Justice Lee that ‘hopefully you’ll see from the size of the compensation payment that, in fact, we are very sorry’.

‘We do wish for the workforce that was impacted to be properly remediated and the compensation that has been agreed could go some way to deal with that,’ she said.

Outside court, former Qantas worker Damien Pollard said union members were looking forward to the conclusion of the case ‘to allow us to get on with our lives’.

‘It’s been a long fight, it’s been very stressful for a lot of employees, so we are looking forward to the end,’ he said.  

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Qantas lashed for ‘hollow’ apology after almost 2,000 workers were axed from the airline in biggest case of illegal sacking in Australia’s history

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