Soooo, then what??
Well, the company are spending squillions of bucks to win this extremely important battle. If they can deliver only a portion of the back pay to the 20 members, they may save $2000-$3000 dollars per employee or $60,000 dollars.
I wonder how long it will take for them to realise that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each week on the contingiency plans (outsourced maint to Cairns, CASA investigations due to botched maint and Alliance flying services they can't meet) far exceeds the ultimate prize ($60,000).
The longer it lasts the more they lose. One day a manager will wake up and realise this, until then, enjoy the show.