Federal government to intervene in transport union’s high court fight against Qantas

The federal government will join the Transport Workers’ Union’s (TWU) high court fight with Qantas as the airline bids to overturn a ruling that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handlers’ jobs. The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, filed a notice of appearance on 16 January to intervene in the case, in which Qantas hopes to overturn a full federal court decision exposing it to a mammoth compensation bill for laying off staff at 10 airports in November 2020. In July 2021 the federal court ruled Qantas’s outsourcing of the workers was in part driven by a desire to avoid industrial action, which is a breach of the Fair Work Act. Qantas had claimed the outsourcing was a necessary financial measure that could save it $100m annually and reduce future spending on ground handling equipment such as tugs and baggage loaders.<br/>The high court granted Qantas leave to appeal in December, on the grounds that at the time the jobs were outsourced, the workers had no right to take industrial action. The national secretary of the TWU, Michael Kaine, said the case had wide ramifications. “Of course this is now all in the hands of the high court to determine, but we are hopeful the [government’s] intervention is to highlight that the Qantas position, if upheld, would seriously undermine the protective intention of the laws.”<br/>