Claim of misguided Covid advice sparks legal action against Qantas

Qantas is the target of another lawsuit by the TWU, this time over the airline’s treatment of a part-time cleaner.

An Emirates aircraft cleaner at worker. A former Qantas cleaner is at the centre of a new lawsuit brought by the TWU.

Qantas advised cleaning staff in the early days of the pandemic that the virus could be transmitted only between people who shared a bed, and it could not survive for long on surfaces, the Transport Workers Union claims.

The misguided advice forms part of a new lawsuit brought by the union against the airline over the treatment of a cleaner who refused to service aircraft returning from China.

According to a statement of claim lodged in the Fair Work Commission, the part-time worker and union representative began receiving complaints from co-workers about the health risks posed by those flights in late January 2020.

When some of the cleaners ­refused to board planes that had carried Chinese passengers, he told management at Qantas Ground Services they were within their rights to do so under the Workplace Health and Safety Act. The next day, a doctor engaged by Qantas addressed a meeting at QGS, telling those present it was very difficult for Covid-19 to be passed from one human to another unless they lived together, and shared utensils and a bed.

According to the cleaner’s recollection of the meeting, the doctor also claimed Covid-19 did not last long on surfaces.

When the cleaner escalated the matter by posting on a workplace Facebook group that there was a major risk to the extent the government had closed the border with China and workers had a legislative right to refuse unsafe work, he was called into a meeting with managers.

It was then decided to stand down the cleaner while an internal investigation was undertaken as he was “causing anxiety to workers”.

Qantas asserted the decision was made because the cleaner had tried to incite unprotected industrial action, and he should have known he was not authorised to direct other workers not to service aircraft from China.

The TWU’s statement of claim said the investigation into the cleaner’s conduct failed to progress, and then Qantas announced plans to outsource all its ground-handling operations.

As a result, the cleaner was made redundant and the investigation abandoned, leaving him “distressed, upset and anxious”.

In response to his treatment, the TWU claimed Qantas had taken prohibited adverse action by preventing him from exercising his rights as a health and safety representative, and sought relief in the form of compensation for “economic and non-economic loss”.

The union also asked that the commission impose a penalty on Qantas for “contraventions of the Fair Work Act” with any penalties levied to be paid to the TWU.

Qantas was expected to defend the allegations, pointing out there was not a single positive Covid case on flights back from China.

“We know this through extensive contract tracing done by health authorities at the time,” said a Qantas spokesman.

It is the latest in a string of lawsuits brought by the TWU against Qantas, relating to JobKeeper payments, sick leave entitlements and outsourcing.

In a recent judgment, the Federal Court ruled the outsourcing of 2000 ground-handling workers by Qantas was based on a prohibited reason, namely, concern they would strike in 2021 during enterprise negotiations.