Qantas is facing a hefty compensation payout to 1700 workers illegally sacked during the pandemic after a Federal Court ruling on Monday.

The court ruled the airline pay compensation for three test cases amounting to $170,000. The Transport Workers Union, who first brought the case in 2020, will now go into mediation with Qantas to finalise the payout for the remaining workers based on the amounts assigned to the three test cases.

The judgment stated that the ruling is to be based off three cases; case one is to be paid $30,000, case two $40,000, and case three $100,000.

Transport Workers Union national assistant secretary Nick McIntosh said the amounts paid to individuals would vary, but he estimated Qantas would owe compensation totalling more than $100 million over the case.

During the pandemic, Qantas sacked 1700 ground-handler employees citing cost-cutting measures as COVID flight restrictions continued to ravage the airline industry. However, Qantas did not replace the employees once the pandemic no longer restricted flights and instead continued to illegally outsource ground handlers, the High Court ruled in September 2023.

Justice Michael Lee said that given Qantas’ laser-like focus on cutting costs, it was highly likely that the decision to outsource would have proceeded anyway. Justice Lee urged the union and the airline to resolve the outstanding issues of compensation and the penalty for Qantas.

“It may be a triumph of hope over expectation, but my desire is for the Court to move quickly to resolve any penalty and the balance of compensation issues,” he said.

Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson issued an apology to the former ground staff on Monday, as the airline said it would work to expedite the payments.

“We sincerely apologise to our former employees who were impacted by this decision and we know that the onus is on Qantas to learn from this,” Hudson said.