Sydney, Australia Reuters —

A court ordered Australia’s largest airline, Qantas Airways, on Monday to pay a record fine of A$90 million ($58.64 million) for illegally sacking 1,800 ground staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized it for a lack of contrition.

In imposing the penalty, the largest ordered by a court on a company in the history of Australia’s labor laws, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee also inveighed against the airline’s litigation strategy.

While Qantas made changes to its board and management team, Lee said subsequent expressions of regret seemed more aligned with “the damage” the case had done to the company than remorse for the harm caused to workers.

“I accept Qantas is sorry, but I am unconvinced that this measure of regret is not, at least in significan

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