As Qantas stares down a compensation bill exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars, a lawyer says the airline made "the right decision financially" even though it illegally sacked ground crew workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee ordered Qantas to financially compensate the 1,700 workers it illegally stood down in August 2020 for both economic and non-economic losses suffered.

Justice Lee said that former Qantas employees would be compensated depending on the emotional loss they sustained, based on three test cases of different workers who were awarded $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000 respectively.

However, the judge said that he agreed with Qantas' submission that it would have sacked the workers a year later — and as such, any compensation for loss of income would be capped at 12 months' pay.

The Transport Workers' Union (TWU) estimated the total compensation bill would exceed $100 million, but Dan Trindade, a workplace relations lawyer with firm Clayton Utz, said the figure may be substantially higher.

"Looking at the figures, it would seem that the outer limits of what that might be up to say, $100,000 per individual employee, depending on how much they were earning at the time," he said.

"That might be roughly … $170 million in economic loss.

"Then you look at the non-economic loss, and if you average those three amounts out … that would equate to about the same amount, about $170 million in economic loss.

"It'll probably end up somewhere between $300-350 million in compensation."

But even with a substantial compensation bill, hefty legal fees and a potential financial penalty, Mr Trindade said the airline has saved millions.

"What they've done was the right decision financially, because it will have saved them money," he said.

"The evidence before the courts was that it would be about $580 million saved over five years.

"They haven't achieved all of the savings that they were hoping to, but they certainly, in a longer term sense, will have achieved a better net outcome.

"What it doesn't account for is the reputational damage."

It's unclear exactly how much Qantas has set aside for potential compensation regarding the illegal sacking of ground handling staff, however its 2024 annual report noted that it had increased its provision for the case by $70 million.

Qantas has committed to working with the TWU to speed up payouts through the remediation process.

The airline also apologised for a second time to its former employees after the Federal Court ruling, which aviation analyst Keith Tonkin described as "disingenuous".

"It seems a little bit disingenuous to have done that, knowing that they've spent the last three-and-a-half years fighting against any potential compensation or finding of illegal actions, and having already provided for $70 million in the financial results, knowing that they'll have some sort of compensation to pay," he said.

"We'd like to think that they have taken that on board and will be a better corporate citizen in the future."

But Mr Tonkin said the Federal Court ruling will impact Qantas' already under siege reputation.

"It's another situation that's damaged Qantas' brand, even just recently, Roy Morgan research says that Qantas is the second-most distrusted brand in Australia," he said.

"They won't be very pleased with that, and it comes on the heels of some of the other findings against Qantas in terms of selling seats when they knew that the aircraft weren't going to fly, and the $100 million penalty and the other $20 million to be paid as compensation to those people.

"So there are a few things lining up that have taken some time to come to fruition that really tells us that they've had some difficulties, and they'll be trying very hard to get past that and improve their brand."

With the airline's annual general meeting to be held in Hobart on Friday, Qantas' reputation in the wake of the Federal Court's ruling is likely to be top of mind for shareholders.

Qantas' board was put on notice after a fiery AGM last year culminated in an 83 per cent protest vote against the airline's executive remuneration report, following months of scrutiny and negative press that saw Alan Joyce exit the company two months earlier than planned.

It was one of the largest protest votes in Australian corporate history, and delivered a "first strike" against the Qantas board.

Should a second strike occur at Friday's AGM, the airline's board would face the possibility of being spilled.

Qantas and the TWU will return to the Federal Court in November where a final compensation amount and decision on any potential financial penalty will be made.