Covid-19 vigil: Prosecution drops appeal against acquittal
According to Selangor DAP women's wing secretary Nalina Nair, the prosecution dropped its appeal today after the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate Court ruled in 2023 that a prima facie case had not been established.
In 2021, Nalina (above, left) and Sujatra Jayaraj...
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The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Qantas fined US$59mil for firing 1,820 employees during Covid-19 pandemic
SYDNEY (Bloomberg): Qantas Airways Ltd. was ordered to pay A$90 million ($59 million) for illegally sacking almost 2,000 ground workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a court judgment that included sharp criticism of the airline's culture and raised questions about how much the company has changed. In a ruling on Monday, the Federal Court of Australia told Qantas to pay A$50 million of the penalty directly to the Transport Workers' Union, which had sued the airline over the firings. A portion of the remainder, to be determined at a later hearing, might go to some of the 1,820 sacked workers. The fine comes on top of last year's A$120 million compensation deal for the impacted former employees. Qantas outsourced ground-handling operations at 10 Australian airports in late 2020, under then-Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce, as the pandemic brought aviation to a standstill. The Transport Workers' Union argued staff were axed to avoid looming negotiations over pay and conditions and potential strikes. Reading his hour-long judgment, Justice Michael Lee criticized the culture that allowed the firings to proceed. He also questioned the airline's degree of contrition and its commitment to change, noting Qantas's "unrelenting and aggressive litigation strategy' as it pursued the case through the courts. Lee said he was left "with a sense of disquiet and uncertainty as to precisely what went on within the upper echelons of Qantas leading up to the outsourcing decision.' The illegal firings were one of several scandals and corporate missteps at Qantas during the pandemic and its immediate aftermath, including accusations from the regulator that Qantas sold seats on thousands of flights that the airline had already scrapped. The airline agreed to pay a further A$120 million in penalties and compensation for the ghost flights. Resolving the ground handlers' case has been a key part of Qantas' rehabilitation under Joyce's successor, Vanessa Hudson, who took the helm in late 2023. Justice Lee's stinging words on Monday now reopen the debate about who was to blame, and what's being done, following the worst reputational crisis in the airline's history. 'Performative Remorse' Lee expressed his dissatisfaction that Hudson hadn't appeared in court, but had instead apologized through company statements. "It is one thing for the 'Qantas News Room' to issue press releases by a CEO saying sorry; it is quite another for written assertions of contrition, recognition of wrong and cultural change to be tested in a courtroom by senior counsel for a party submitting that Qantas is engaged in performative remorse,' Justice Lee said in his judgment. Subscribe to The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube, or wherever you listen. Hudson again apologized in a statement after the judgment. "We sincerely apologize to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result,' Hudson said. "We've worked hard to change the way we operate as part of our efforts to rebuild trust with our people and our customers. This remains our highest priority.' Lee said that while he accepts Qantas is sorry, he said it's probably "the wrong kind of sorry.' "I do think persons of responsibility within Qantas do now have some genuine regrets, but this more likely reflects the damage this case has done to the company rather than either remorse for the damage done to the affected workers, or concern it engaged in the contravening conduct,' Lee said. Former CEO Joyce resurfaced in Sydney last week and defended his record - and the steps taken - when he ran Qantas. In a speech at an aviation conference, he said "hard and painful' decisions made during the Covid pandemic saved Qantas from collapse. "Qantas, like many airlines, also faced very challenging decisions about its workforce. I acknowledge that,' Joyce said in his speech, without directly referring to sacking the ground workers. TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine, speaking after Monday's judgment, described Qantas' actions in 2020 as "ruthless and self-interested.' "Today's decision is a A$90 million message to corporate Australia that workers will stand up for what's right,' Kaine said. Qantas had faced a maximum A$121 million penalty for illegally sacking the workers. -- ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New Straits Times
a day ago
- New Straits Times
Qantas fined US$58mil over illegally sacking 1,800 workers during pandemic
SYDNEY: Qantas Airways, Australia's largest airline, has been fined A$90 million (US$58.64 million) for illegally sacking 1,800 ground staff and replacing them with contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic, a court ruled on Monday. In imposing a penalty close to the maximum available for breaching Australia's workplace laws, Federal Court of Australia Judge Michael Lee said it was to ensure it "could not be perceived as anything like the cost of doing business". "My present focus is on achieving real deterrence (including general deterrence to large public companies which might be tempted to 'get away' with contravening conduct because the rewards may outweigh the downside risk of effective remedial responses," Lee said in a summary judgment. He said A$50 million of the penalty would be paid to the Transport Workers' Union, which brought the case on behalf of the 1,820 staff fired by Qantas during the pandemic. It comes around nine months after Qantas and the Union agreed on a A$120 million settlement for the sacked workers.
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Peace in the ‘land of the morning calm'
MANY political commentators these days point out that we are living in a world at war. Some say that the current situation of the world resembles that of the early 20th century when World War I broke out, and others argue that our times look more like the mid-20th century when World War II began. Either way, we are undoubtedly living in a time of unprecedented global crisis. Just a few years ago, everyone on earth desperately fought a war against the Covid-19 virus that devastated the world, leaving heavy casualties of human lives. Now the pandemic is over and yet, war on earth still seems to be going on, due to territorial disputes, ideological clashes, or trade frictions that have erupted into global crises. Many of us can still recall times when we were full of hope for the future. When the Soviet Union collapsed and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe reinstated their sovereignty in the early 1990s, we were elated and relieved, believing that communism had come to an end at last. At the time, political analysts predicted that the world would enjoy liberal democracy from then on, thanks to the downfall of communism. But we were too hasty and optimistic. Communist leaders adopted the free-market economy to overcome poverty, but they never gave up their political ideology. As is well known, it was America that played a decisive role in the above-mentioned monumental change. American politicians naively believed that economic prosperity in communist countries would topple communist regimes and bring forth liberal democracy instead. For that reason, they encouraged the 'offshoring' of American manufacturing companies so they could be of help to boost the economies of communist countries. Perhaps due to this so-called 'American innocence', American politicians could not perceive the attributes of communist ideology that would never change. They belatedly realised that they had created a monster that had supreme financial power. As a result, the earth is still divided into two radically different worlds: The free world of liberal democracy, and authoritarian, totalitarian socialist countries. Inevitably, a second Cold War began and is currently underway. Unlike the first Cold War, which was a war of spies and espionage, the second one is a war of territories, trade, and technology. Indeed, we are now witnessing heated international conflicts over territories, tariffs, and semiconductors. Territorial wars are now going on in Europe and the Middle East, as we can see in the Ukraine War, the Israel-Hamas War, and the Israel-Iran War. In East Asia, another war may or may not break out, depending on the future development of territorial disputes concerning Taiwan. Experts have warned that if those territorial wars continue spiralling, the impact will eventually spread all over the world. Many experts have predicted that South Korea may be the next target of a territorial dispute if Taiwan loses its sovereignty. The heavy tariffs recently imposed by the United States constitute another type of war for many countries. Unlike territorial wars that use drones and weapons of mass destruction, a tariff war or a trade war is a silent, invisible war that requires peaceful negotiations or a truce. Instead of human casualties, it can damage the economy of the countries that depend on trade for their economic stability or prosperity. These days, America seems to have determined that it will no longer tolerate other countries' 'taking advantage' of its long- standing generosity and magnanimity. America has a point, in a way, because it is undeniable that other countries have long depended upon or even taken advantage of America's largesse. It may also be true that numerous undocumented immigrants have cost astronomical amounts of money in using social services, paid for by US citizens' taxes. Perhaps America has tolerated such things for too long while playing the role of a global leader and defender of liberal democracy. If America gives it up now, however, it will surely endanger its allies' national security at a time when totalitarian socialist countries are aggressively attempting to expand their territories. In addition, such a change will inevitably alter America's traditional image and identity. We are also living in an age of technology wars. The Huawei controversy some time ago was a good example. The present competition over semiconductors and artificial intelligence is another. Today, hacking other countries' sensitive national intelligence, surveillance through electronic devices, and stealing electronic technologies have become ubiquitous actions. Many countries are now suffering from the above-mentioned wars in one way or another. South Korea is no exception. In fact, Korea is caught in the crossfire of all three types of war simultaneously: a territorial war, a trade war, and a technology war. To make matters worse, Korea is also suffering from internal ideological warfare that has disrupted and dismantled the country in the past few decades. While living dangerously in a world at war, we must figure out how to survive these hardships and bring peace to this 'land of the morning calm'. — The Korea Herald/Asia News Network Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College.
