I don't know what they were meant to do with all these workers through the pandemic. They literally had no work for them and no money coming in to pay them. Given that lots of businesses laid off workers in that period, why was it illegal when Qantas did it?
I'm missing something. The article didn't really explain how this action infringed on fair worker's rights.
Qantas were still collecting Job keeper payments after they let go staff. Qantas also used the lockdown as an opportunity to outsource the work to Swissport during that period.
According to the news this morning (before the decision was handed down), the issue was that they used business conditions as an excuse when the real reason they wanted to fire workers was because of threat of them organising and engaging in industrial action.