A second law firm is likely to throw its hat in the ring to run a competing class action against Qantas over flight cancellations in the COVID-19 pandemic, but a judge has made orders trying to side-step a carriage fight, criticising them as “wasteful and expensive”.
A former Qantas worker looks set to appeal a judgment that found she can’t undo a $75,000 settlement in a workers compensation claim in order to pursue a discrimination suit against the airline.
A judge has asked why the union representing Qantas workers did not bring a class action on behalf of 1,700 ground crew who were sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he ordered the airline’s new CEO to attend settlement talks after losing its High Court appeal.
In the latest setback for Qantas, the ACCC has said it intends to deny the embattled airline’s bid to coordinate operations with China Eastern Airlines on flights between Australian and China in light of competition concerns.
The High Court will deliver judgment Wednesday in an appeal by Qantas over its decision to sack its ground crew at the height of COVID-19, a ruling that could determine the scope of adverse action protections under the Fair Work Act.
Qantas has responded to ACCC proceedings alleging it sold thousands of tickets on cancelled flights, saying the period in which the alleged unlawful conduct occurred was one of “well-publicised upheaval” for airlines.
The ACCC has initiated court proceedings against Qantas for allegedly continuing to sell tickets on more than 8,000 flights that had been cancelled weeks earlier.
Qantas faces a class action on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers who allegedly never received refunds after flights were cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qantas has succeeded in attacking claims that it created a workplace that was “hostile to women”, leveled in a former female pilot’s sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit.
The Transport Workers Union has predicted wide-reaching consequences for workplace rights if Qantas succeeds in its High Court appeal of a finding that it breached the Fair Work Act when it outsourced ground crew work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.