Qantas guilty of workplace breach over Covid safety

The airline illegally stood down a health and safety worker at the start of Covid after he raised concerns about cleaning flights coming in from China, a court has ruled.

Safework NSW accused Qantas of breaching part 6 of the Work Health and Safety Act. Picture: TWU

Qantas is facing penalties and further reputational fallout after it was found guilty of a criminal offence for standing down a health and safety representative early in the global pandemic.

NSW district court judge David Russell ruled on Thursday the airline illegally sacked Theo Seremetidis when he raised concerns about working on aircraft arriving from China without masks and directed other employees to cease unsafe work.

“SafeWork NSW … charged QGS (Qantas Ground Services) with engaging in discriminatory conduct for a prohibited reason, contrary to the WHS Act,” Judge Russel said.

“The allegation in those proceedings was that on 2 February 2020 QGS altered the position of Mr Seremetidis to his detriment,” he said.

“I have come to the conclusion that the elements of this offence have been established beyond a reasonable doubt and that QGS is guilty of the offence charged.”

Former Qantas worker Theo Seremetidis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

It is the first legal test of uniform work health and safety laws in Australia, and Qantas now faces a fine of $500,000.

The prosecution was brought after a complaint from the Transport Workers Union to SafeWork NSW on behalf of Mr Seremetidis, who was employed by Qantas for seven years and in 2020 worked at the Sydney international terminal as a high lift truck driver.

He was also an elected health and safety representative.

Outside court, Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine welcomed the decision.

“This is a victory today for a hero, Theo, against a villain, Qantas,” he said.

Mr Seremetidis said he felt “vindicated”, having also been made redundant by Qantas — illegally, again — among 1700 other ground crew.

“I felt that I was being targeted. I was doing what I felt was the right thing,” he said.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus also heralded the outcome.

“Theo is a hero for standing up at great cost to himself to keep the whole of the community safe from a deadly virus,” she said.

In his judgement, Judge Russell noted emails sent to ground services staff by Qantas Group Medical Dr Russell Brown.

Dr Brown said on January 25, 2020 the coronavirus situation was “rapidly evolving” but the risk of the virus spreading to staff was “currently extremely unlikely”.

No masks were recommended, just regular handwashing and the use of gloves. That advice continued for a number of days.

According to the judgement, Qantas staff member Reece Smith sent an email to all ground services operational team managers on January 27 and said he believed the TWU were using stories about Covid-19 to “spread fear” among Qantas workers and told some crew they could carry on with work or refuse and be subject to disciplinary action.

In other email exchanges, Mr Seremetidis told him the company could not threaten staff with disciplinary action if they refused to work on safety grounds and he continued to escalate the concerns of workers in the followings days.

Despite medical updates being sent to staff to inform them about deaths linked with Covid-19 and concerns it could be spread without the appearance of symptoms, the airline continued to recommend normal safety precautions and “business as usual”.

On February 1 2020, travellers from mainland China were told by the Australian government they must isolate for two weeks and on February 2 Mr Seremetidis issued his first directions to cease unsafe work.

The same day, he was hauled into a meeting with management who told him they were standing him down for “causing anxiety to workers because he gave them a direction to cease unsafe work”, the judgement read.

But Judge Russell said there was no evidence Mr Seremetidis caused anxiety among his colleagues.

He also accepted Mr Seremetidis should have consulted with Qantas before issuing directions to cease unsafe work.

Repeated scandals concerning Qantas — including after the consumer regulator announced it would prosecute the airline for allegedly selling ticket to 8000 ghost flights — saw former chief executive Alan Joyce depart his role early.

As well, 1700 ground staff were illegally outsourced during the pandemic and customer dissatisfaction due to travel delays and high-cost flights has plagued the airline.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled for a later date.