Ex-Qantas workers lose sleep waiting on High Court ruling

afr.com:

Anne Guirguis had worked at Qantas for 27 years when she was sacked from her job cleaning international aircraft in Sydney during the depths of COVID-19 in February 2021.

Damien Pollard started at Qantas in 2008, the same year Alan Joyce took over as chief executive, and had been working as a baggage handler in Canberra until the pandemic closed Australia’s borders. He learned he lost his job through a pre-recorded video message that played in the tearoom on his break.

Former Qantas worker Anne Guirguis, pictured with her nephew. 

Neither have slept well this week, but they’re hoping for a better outcome on Wednesday, when the High Court delivers its verdict over whether their sacking by Qantas was legal.

The ruling at 10am AEST won’t be the end of the legal process, which has been running since Qantas decided to outsource nearly 1700 jobs across 10 airports as part of its plan to reset the airline’s cost base.

Qantas has stripped $1 billion from its costs since the pandemic and told shareholders these savings are permanent. It told the court the sackings resulted in annual savings of $103 million and a reduction of $80 million in capital expenditure.

A loss for Qantas will send it back to the Federal Court to deal with the issue of how much it compensates Guirguis, Pollard and the rest of the 1683 workers sacked as part of the outsourcing. The court is also expected to impose hefty fines and the Transport Workers Union wants these big enough to act as a deterrent to any company planning to do the same to its workers.

For Pollard, who spent 13 years working his way up to trainer level in Qantas’ baggage handling division, watching the abrupt exit of Joyce last week has been bittersweet.

Sacked baggage handler Damien