Sydney, Aug. 18 -- Australia's Federal Court has fined Qantas 90 million Australian dollars (58.6 million U.S. dollars) for the airline's illegal termination of more than 1,800 workers in 2020.



Federal Court Justice Michael Lee handed down the fine on Monday after he ruled in 2021 that the national flag carrier breached protections in the Fair Work Act when it outsourced 1,820 ground handling jobs at 10 airports in November 2020.



The fine imposed by Lee represented about 75 percent of the maximum 121 million AUD penalty that could have been handed down by the court and comes on top of the 120 million AUD that the airline in December agreed to pay affected workers in compensation.

Lee ordered on Monday that 50 million AUD of the fin...