A New South Wales (NSW) court has ruled flag carrier Qantas guilty of illegally standing down a ground staff member for raising concerns about COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
The lawsuit was brought by SafeWork NSW, which represented Theo Seremetidis, a high-lift truck driver employed by Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd (QGS)–a subsidiary of Qantas.
The workplace authority accused the QGS of engaging in discriminatory conduct when it stood down Mr. Seremetidis in early February 2020.
At the time, Mr. Seremetidis, who was also a health and safety representative, directed his coworkers not to service flights from China out of concerns that there were increasing risks of contracting COVID-19.
When questioned by his boss, the high-lift truck driver cited section 85 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), which provides that a health and safety representative may direct a worker to cease work if he or she has a reasonable concern that carrying out the work would expose the worker to a serious health or safety risk.
Shortly after that, the QGS issued Mr. Seremetidis with a notice asking him to “not attend work” while the company investigated the issue.
The Court’s Ruling
After considering the evidence, NSW District Court Judge David Russell concluded that it was beyond a reasonable doubt that the QGS engaged in discriminatory conduct.Mr. Seremetidis told the court he made the decision based on government orders to close the border, bulletins, and medical research indicating that COVID-19 could be transmitted from human to human without any symptoms.
The direction was also made two days after Qantas provided employees with medical advice that the risk of contracting COVID-19 from servicing and cleaning planes arriving from China was “extremely low” in the absence of close physical contact with an infected person.
In his ruling, Judge Russell found that Mr. Seremetidis was conscientious in performing his duty as a health and safety representative.
“He kept himself up to date with the literature and with government announcements, even doing research on his day off,” Judge Russell said.
“Mr Seremetidis would not have been properly discharging his role as a health and safety representative if he chose to ignore the new information.”
Response from Relevant Parties
Following the ruling, Mr. Seremetidis expressed relief that the court case was over after experiencing months of anxiety and depression.“I was doing what I thought was the right thing and was being punished for it because it didn’t suit the company,” he said.
“And they were willing to punish someone rather than actually rectify the issue.”
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) praised the court’s decision while hailing Mr. Seremetidis as a hero.
“Qantas not only ignored the concerns of Theo and his colleagues, but set out to punish and silence him for acting in his role as a highly trained health and safety representative.”
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine also called on Qantas to accept the court’s verdict and reverse its destructive business model of outsourcing ground staff.
Meanwhile, Qantas stated that it was reviewing the ruling.
“We recognise that the initial stages of the pandemic caused a lot of uncertainty for our people, customers, and the business more broadly,” the company said in a statement.
“Our medical and safety teams worked tirelessly to provide daily updates to employees and to put effective controls and procedures in place to help protect our people and customers.”
