Coronavirus: Stay away from work, Qantas tells staff who feel unwell

Qantas says any staff who feel unwell must not show up for work at any Australian airport.

Adelaide Airport baggage handlers deal with luggage on Thursday while appearing to disregard social distancing. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Qantas is warning that any staff who feel unwell must not show up for work at any Australian airport to avoid a repeat of the Adelaide Airport coronavirus cluster that now totals 17 people, including a pilot and five relatives of the 11 ­infected baggage handlers.

As the infections from the cluster climbed and with more than 100 Adelaide Airport staff under two weeks’ quarantine, Qantas said it remained convinced the cluster was a one-off and stressed it had already redoubled its cleaning and distancing efforts across the nation’s airports before the emergence of the Adelaide cases.

The airline also denounced union claims that it knowingly helped create the Adelaide cluster by failing to prevent ill baggage handlers from turning up for work, saying it was the responsibility of individuals to make sure they were fit for work.

National Transport Workers Union secretary Michael Kaine suggested on Thursday that Qantas was responsible for the outbreak because it had failed to provide a safe work environment and management should have prevented sick workers from ­attending work.

He based this on a case in ­Mascot, Sydney, in January where he said workers were forced to work in an unhygienic environment.

The claim drew a furious ­response from the national airline, which has been working closely with SA Health to control the outbreak, believed to have been caused not by local transmission but by one or more of the baggage handlers having been overseas.

“The union clearly hasn’t ­listened to the government or the Chief Medical Officer say that everyone needs to take some personal responsibility,” a Qantas spokesman said.

“We can provide the safest workplace in the world, but if ­people come to work when they are sick, they are potentially putting their workmates at risk of contracting the coronavirus. Since the coronavirus outbreak, we have taken our responsibility seriously and put enhanced safety measures in place to protect our employees and customers. We are doubling down on cleaning measures at airports across the country.”

Qantas is also creating larger shared spaces for staff such as extra lunch rooms across all major airports to enable better social ­distancing.

SA Chief Medical Officer ­Nicola Spurrier moved to reassure the public there was little if any risk of infection from having passed through the airport, but anyone who was feeling unwell should get tested.

She said SA Health was taking an open view of which parts of the terminal people had passed through, including the car park, outside waiting bay and retail ­spaces, not just the luggage area where baggage handlers work. “We are not limiting it to one part of the airport … it is a broad group we are advising,” Dr Spurrier said.

She said anyone who had passed through Adelaide Airport in the past two weeks should disinfect their luggage, despite believing the risk of infection was small.

While the state recorded a ­reduced increase in overall cases yesterday of 18, taking its total to 385, there was some alarm when a pharmacist near the airport in the suburb of Findon tested positive.

The pharmacy case involved a person who was linked to one of the Qantas staff.

The nearby Henley High School was also closed on Thursday after a student tested positive, with the school sounding its evacuation alarm during lesson time.

Almost every case in SA derives from overseas travel, relatives of overseas travellers, and the NSW cruise ship debacle that has caused great public anger in SA by causing more than one-third of the state’s infections.