‘Bureaucracy gone mad’: Qantas hits back at coronavirus slap

Qantas says SafeWork NSW has no business requesting the private medical information of the airline’s employees.

Qantas crew at Brisbane Airport. Picture: Adam Head

Qantas has been accused of failing to notify SafeWork New South Wales about workers who contracted coronavirus in the course of their employment.

The airline is considering appealing the “improvement notice” sent on Monday April 20, outlining how Qantas had allegedly contravened the Work, Health and Safety Act.

“Qantas has failed to notify SafeWork NSW of workers diagnosed with COVID-19 arising out of the conduct of the business or undertaking,” said the notice.

“Qantas is required to notify (SafeWork) of all cases of COVID-19 involving a worker requiring immediate treatment as an inpatient in a hospital and any confirmed infections to which the carrying out of work is a significant contributing factor”.

A series of mandatory directions were issued including “to notify SafeWork NSW immediately after becoming aware of a notifiable incident”.

More than 50 Qantas employees are now thought to have contracted COVID-19, including six baggage handlers at Adelaide Airport, and 11 crew members who worked on the same flight from Chile to Sydney.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline was working with NSW Health on any positive case of COVID-19 among workers, which was the same approach being taken in other states.

“This request by SafeWork NSW is bureaucracy gone mad,” said the spokesman.

“SafeWork NSW is not a public health regulator and should not be requesting private medical information about our employees without their consent.”

He said the demand for such information from Qantas would add “needless paperwork and effort, requiring exactly the same information to be provided to two separate departments in the same government when there is no requirement to do so”.

“We work with NSW Health as the relevant health authority on any positive case of COVID-19 of our employees and assist them with contact tracing,” the spokesman said.

“That is the process we have gone through in other states where this has occurred.”

Qantas was of the understanding there was no legal requirement to notify SafeWork NSW of an employee who contracted COVID-19, and indicated employees were concerned about such information being disclosed.

A spokesman for SafeWork NSW said Qantas had the right to request a review of the notice.

He said no other business had been issued with such a notice since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

The way in which Qantas employees have been infected with the virus has been a source of some contention, with unions concerned it was occurring in-flight, and seeking better personal protection for members.

But Qantas’ chief medical officer Dr Ian Hosegood assured workers there was next to no evidence to suggest infection was occurring on board aircraft and said it was more likely they were contracting COVID-19 during overseas layovers.

As a result Qantas tightened guidelines for crews on overseas flights, ordering them to isolate in hotels until they returned home.