Qantas Found Guilty of Discriminatory Behavior for Suspending Employee Due to COVID-19 Concerns
A New South Wales (NSW) court has ruled that Qantas, the flag carrier, illegally stood down a ground staff member for raising concerns about COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
The lawsuit, brought by SafeWork NSW, represented Theo Seremetidis, a high-lift truck driver employed by Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd (QGS)–a subsidiary of Qantas.
QGS was accused of engaging in discriminatory conduct when it stood down Mr. Seremetidis in early February 2020 for raising concerns about the risks of COVID-19 from flights arriving from China.
At the time, Mr. Seremetidis, who was also designated as a health and safety representative, directed his coworkers not to service flights from China out of concerns about the increasing risks of contracting COVID-19 from those flights.
The QGS accused Mr. Seremetidis of making misleading representations about workplace rights and attempting to incite unprotected industrial action.
After considering the evidence, NSW District Court Judge David Russell concluded that the QGS engaged in discriminatory conduct towards Mr. Seremetidis. This was because he exercised a power or performed a function as a health and safety representative, as per the judgement.
Mr. Seremetidis 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.
Judge Russell found that Mr. Seremetidis was conscientious in performing his duty as a health and safety representative and dismissed other charges from SafeWork.
Following the ruling, Mr. Seremetidis expressed relief that the court case was over after experiencing months of anxiety and depression. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) praised the court’s decision while hailing Mr. Seremetidis as a hero.
Qantas stated that it was reviewing the ruling and recognized that the initial stages of the pandemic caused a lot of uncertainty for their people, customers, and the business more broadly.
