澳大利亚联邦法院法官迈克尔·李对处理向被非法解雇Qantas员工分配赔偿金的Maurice Blackburn律师事务所提出严厉批评。[1][2]该律师事务所仅在7月31日截止日期前8天才提出需要更多时间完成支付计划的请求，导致1820名工人必须继续等待领取1.2亿美元赔偿金。[1][2]这些员工在2020年新冠疫情期间被Qantas非法解雇，已经等候赔偿超过五年。[1]
法官李在庭审中表示："法庭命令不是帕勒莫的红绿灯。它们的存在不是为了在人们认为方便的时候才被遵守。"[2]他拒绝了律师事务所的延期申请。[2]目前仅有500万美元已支付给工人，每名员工获得了3333美元的临时赔偿，其余资金仍由法院掌管。[1]此外，这1820名员工还有权获得4000万美元的法庭罚金分配。[2]
Maurice Blackburn律师事务所表示已投入约40人从事赔偿工作，审阅了17500份个人税收文件。[1]法官已安排于8月6日进行进一步听证会。[1][2]
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee has severely reprimanded Maurice Blackburn law firm for failing to distribute a $120 million compensation settlement to 1,820 workers illegally dismissed by Qantas during the 2020 pandemic.[1][2] The firm had only requested additional time to complete the complex distribution process eight days before the July 31 deadline, prompting the judge to warn of sanctions if the payments are not finalized by that date.[1][2] Justice Lee stated that "court orders are not like the traffic lights in Palermo," emphasizing that legal directives cannot be disregarded when convenient.[1][2]
To date, only $5 million of the settlement has been distributed, with the remaining funds held by the court.[1] Each worker has received a preliminary payment of $3,333.[1] The workers have already endured a wait exceeding five years for compensation following their unlawful termination.[1] Maurice Blackburn has indicated it has allocated approximately 40 staff members to the compensation work and reviewed 17,500 individual tax documents as part of the distribution process.[1] A further hearing has been scheduled for August 6 to address the matter.[1][2] Additionally, the former employees are entitled to receive a $40 million court penalty allocation.[2]