Bus driver sacked after telling passenger who refused to wear a mask and said “f..k off Karen’’ to get off the bus

A bus company has been forced to reinstate a Gold Coast driver who was unfairly dismissed for asking a verbally abusive passenger, who refused to properly wear his mask, to get off the bus.

A bus company that sacked a driver, after she asked a passenger to get off a bus, after he refused to put his mask on, telling her “f..k off Karen’’, has been ordered to reinstate her.

A Fair Work Commissioner said if he had been on the bus he would have appreciated the driver asking the “recalcitrant passenger’’ to move his mask from his chin to cover his mouth and nose.

“I find it incredulous that any employer would dismiss an employee for asking a passenger to comply with a Government mandate,’’ Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan said.

In September, last year, when there was a Queensland Government mask mandate, a young adult male got on a Surfside Buslines bus and sat in a disabled passenger’s seat, without paying.

Surfside Buslines was made to reinstate a bus driver they unfairly dismissed over an incident with a passenger. Picture Glenn Hampson

Gold Coast driver Amie Logsdon asked the passenger, whose mask was under his chin, to put it on properly, over his nose and mouth, telling him it was mandatory, the Commission heard.

The passenger claimed to have an exemption, and when asked why he was wearing a mask, he said it was because he had just visited a friend in day surgery.

After Ms Logsdon again asked the passenger to “please’’ put his mask on, the man said: “F..k off Karen’’.

Ms Logsdon then told him he could get off at the next stop for verbally abusing her and when he refused to get off, she asked her control room to call police and asked other passengers to get off the bus.

Ms Logsdon was dismissed six days later, for trying to enforce the Queensland Government mask mandate “in breach of Surfside Buslines’ policy’’.

She was told her decision to disregard company direction and attempt to enforce the wearing of masks was not consistent with behaviours and standards of the company.

Translink required mandatory mask wearing by staff, but frontline staff were “not expected to undertake any enforcement activities in relation to passengers not wearing a mask’’.

Ms Logsdon, 55, who had worked for the company for two years, sought reinstatement for unfair dismissal.

She said she understood that the Chief Health Officer had mandated that public transport passengers wear masks because of Covid-19 and she was entitled to a safe workplace.

The bus company said Ms Logsdon was dismissed for serious misconduct, after an investigation into a complaint of inappropriate behaviour towards a passenger.

Governor Dr Jeannette Young was the chief health officer at the time and had first instated Queensland’s mask mandate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

The company said Ms Logsdon could have avoided the conflict.

Commissioner Riordan said the passenger was clearly lying when he said he had an exemption from wearing a mask.

“I struggle to see how asking a person who is already wearing a mask to place it over his mouth rather than wearing it under his chin can be described as somehow enforcing the mandate,’’ Commissioner Riordan said.

He found Ms Logsdon was concerned about the safety of herself and her passengers.

The Commissioner said the passenger was asked to leave the bus because he verbally abused the driver, not because he refused to wear his mask.

He found Ms Logsdon did not engage in “enforcement’’ of the mask mandate.

Surfside Buslines did not respond appropriately to the passenger’s verbal abuse and it did not have a valid reason to sack Ms Logsdon, who was unfairly dismissed, the Commissioner said.

On April 22, the Commissioner ordered the company to reinstate the “proud and caring bus driver’’ to her former role, with continuity of service and backpay.