Upholding Qantas’s decision to sack staff would weaken workplace rights, union warns

Upholding Qantas’s decision to sack staff ahead of industrial action would create “uncertainty” about accessing workplace rights and water down protections against other forms of discrimination, such as sacking workers before they accrue parental leave. That is the submission of the Transport Workers’ Union in the airline’s high court case seeking to overturn the finding that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handler jobs. Qantas is fighting on two fronts, against the union, which argues the protection against adverse action is not limited to “presently existing” rights, and against the workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, who has sought to intervene in the case. On Wednesday the airline filed a notice arguing Burke has no automatic right to intervene, in a bid to force him to seek leave for submissions expected to favour the TWU. 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.<br/>