Qantas Airways has been fined A$90m (43m) by Australia's Federal Court for illegally dismissing more than 1,800 ground staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, the BBC reported yesterday (18 August).
This penalty is in addition to the A$120m (57.5m) in compensation Qantas had agreed to pay its former employees in 2024, after losing multiple appeals in court.
Justice Michael Lee described the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handling and cleaning jobs in late 2020 as the "largest and most significant contravention" of Australian labour laws in the country's 120-year history, according to the BBC report.
When making mass layoffs, companies must meet consultation periods, follow redundancy laws, and apply fair selection criteria, advised Eleanor Tweddell, founder of HR consultancy Another Door.
How employers communicate is just as critical, Tweddell told HR magazine.
She added: “Employees should never be blindsided. Clarity and transparency are as important as compliance. People value fairness and being treated well. Most people understand it's hard to handle, but sometimes there is no effort made to be fair and to handle [redundancies] in the best way.”
On Friday (15 August), news broke that the UK's largest bioethanol plant would begin closing down operations on 18 August, after the government decided it would not offer the sector a rescue package, the BBC reported.
Leaders of Hull-based Vivergo Fuels, owned by Associated British Foods, told BBC reporters that the first ...
As organizations navigate the evolving DEI landscape under Executive Order 14173, the stakes have never been higher. Because federal-funding recipients must now certify that they do not engage in “...