A Federal court judge has slammed the behaviour of Qantas for wrongfully sacking three workers when the Coronavirus shut down the economy. The decision could mean 1,700 workers could be in line for compensation, which could total up to $100 million! This could be the price that the airline could have to pay for being a big business behaving badly.

This decision from Justice Michael Lee, who oversaw the Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal case and found in favour of Lisa Wilkinson who, along with network TEN, was accused of defaming Lehrmann, socked it to the airline.

“Vast legal costs have been expended, and particularly by Qantas, who have retained no less than five senior counsels during the course of the matter and numerous solicitors from one of Australia’s pre-eminent law firms,” Lee was reported to have said by theguardian.com website.

But this was not a one-off problem for the airline that was led by former CEO Alan Joyce, with the Federal court this month imposing $100 million penalty for selling thousands of tickets for flights that had been cancelled!

This week’s court finding awarded $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000 to three workers who were unfairly sacked. Now the Transport Workers Union will go into mediation to work out what Qantas will have to pay around 1,700 workers who copped the same illegal behaviour from the airline.

In case you’ve forgotten, Qantas got rid of their baggage handlers, cleaners and other ground staff and replaced them with outsourced workers, which the Federal court found contravened the Fair Work Act.

The airline has taken the unwanted finding to the full bench of the Federal court and the High Court and have copped a thumbs down each time.

This is why Justice Lee slammed the company for enormous legal outlays to avoid facing up to its bad behaviour.

Under Joyce’s leadership, the share price spiked to $7.34 after languishing around $1 in his early days in the top job. Today, the share price is around the former level, but this is a reflection of a lack of competition in our airline market and the high prices that are being changed for tickets.

Given this dominance, there is a case for more regulation and/or greater encouragement to get more competition into the local industry, or else workers and customers will have to rely on the courts to ensure our airlines and other big businesses don’t behave badly.

This might be OK for big unions with deep pockets, but for too long, smaller businesses and consumers have been taken for a ride and terrorized into non-action because of the potential huge legal bills that would have to be paid to seek justice.

This isn’t a case for too much government regulation, but it is an argument that our politicians actually have the guts to take on big businesses when they use their money muscle to prevent consumers, small businesses and workers from having a fair go.

Here's a question for you: Who in the Federal Government is seen as the champion for the consumer and small business? If you can’t name him or her, maybe there isn’t one.