Qantas will pay a $100 million penalty and another $20 million in compensation in a settlement of the ACCC’s so-called ghost flights case that includes an admission by the airline that it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in selling tickets for cancelled flights.
A judge has chided the Transport Workers Union for announcing at the start of trial that it intends to seek lost union dues from Qantas, as a hearing kicked off over the amount of compensation the airline owes to ground crew, whose jobs were illegally outsourced at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A judge has ordered Qantas to hand over instructions it gave to its solicitors at Herbert Smith Freehills that underpinned advice over the airline’s decision to sack 1,700 ground crew during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qantas has been hit with a $250,000 fine for standing down a health and safety representative who directed co-workers to cease unsafe work during COVID-19, with a judge saying the airline’s conduct was “shameful” and designed to “advance its own commercial interests”.
Two law firms running competing class actions against Qantas over flight cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic have agreed to cooperate after a judge took them to task for revising their funding positions in the lead up to a courtroom battle.
A judge has admonished the Transport Workers Union for relying on test cases to decide compensation for 1,700 ground crew who were sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it should instead bring a class action.
Qantas has hit back the ACCC’s argument that the airline failed to respond to key allegations in its ‘ghost flights’ case, telling the court it’s the regulator’s job to particularise its claims.
The ACCC has raised concerns over Qantas’ alleged failure to respond to claims in a blockbuster case against the airline over the sale of tickets on cancelled flights.
Qantas has hit back at the ACCC’s case alleging it sold thousands of tickets on cancelled flights for commercial gain, saying airlines cannot guarantee flights will run as planned.
Qantas has again conceded defeat in the face of opposition by the ACCC, this time bowing out of a joint coordination agreement with China Eastern Airlines.