Qantas is apparently being taken to court by unions over its refusal to pay sick leave entitlements while staff are stood down. I would have thought the unions have a case. I am assuming we are talking here about illness that was contracted before the stand down.
I can see the attraction here. Qantas would have a huge provision in its accounts for accumulated sick leave. If redundancy is required, the accountants can rebalance accumulated sick leave which may offset a chunk of the redundancy costs. Then of course there is the cash cost of sick leave. It almost sounds to me that if you are going to do a headcount reduction, then pick the people with large accumulated sick leave balances because reduction in the provision will partially offset redundancy payments.
Shame about the cancer and heart disease patients, but can’t be helped under modern, efficient management methods.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-...leave/12193662