CONTRACTING OUT – AUSTRALIA

Sacked Qantas workers’ record $120m payout

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Original article by Ayesha de Kretser
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 18-Dec-24

Qantas has agreed to pay $120m in compensation to 1,683 ground handling workers whose jobs were outsourcd in 2020. The Transport Workers Union’s national secretary Michael Kaine has welcomed the deal; he says that "delivering justice" to the affected workers is "the first step in turning Qantas around". Economic and non-economic losses will be considered in determining each worker’s share of the payout. Qantas had argued that the outsourcing was necessary in response to the pandemic, but Federal Court ruled that the workers had been illegally sacked to prevent them from exercising their workplace right to take industrial action.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, TRANSPORT WORKERS’ UNION, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Union scores another legal win over Qantas

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 15 : 22-Sep-21

The Federal Court has rejected Qantas’s push to delay a preliminary remedy hearing with regard to the reinstatement of ground-handling staff whose jobs had been outsourced. The preliminary hearing had been scheduled for 1 October, but Qantas argued that it should be postponed until the carrier’s appeal against the Federal Court’s recent ruling in the case is heard in 2022. The court had found that Qantas’s decision to outsource 2,000 jobs was at least partly aimed at avoiding industrial action; the airline had contended that the move was solely aimed at achieving cost savings of $100m.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Lawyers’ bills soar under Coalition

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Original article by Nicola Berkovic
The Australian – Page: 7 : 28-Jun-18

New figures show that the outsourcing of legal work to the private sector has significantly increased the federal government’s legal costs since the Coalition took office in 2013. Government expenditure on legal services topped $A825m in 2016-17, compared with $A689m in 2013-14. The proportion of legal work undertaken by in-house lawyers has fallen from 54 per cent to 49 per cent over the same period. Attorney-General Christian Porter has indicated that action will be taken to rein in legal costs.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS, AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SOLICITOR, CLAYTON UTZ

Fairfax about-face to cost 70 jobs at NZ subsidiary

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Original article by Michael Bodey
The Australian – Page: 21 : 17-Feb-16

Fairfax Media subsidiary Pagemasters will resume responsibility for subediting and production work on the group’s Australian metropolitan newspapers. The work was shifted to Fairfax Editorial Services in New Zealand in 2014, which prompted concern among journalists about quality control issues. The latest move is aimed at reducing costs and will result in the loss of about 70 jobs at Fairfax’s New Zealand division.

CORPORATES
FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, PAGEMASTERS PTY LTD, FAIRFAX EDITORIAL SERVICES