Virgin culture in question as more staff depart

More evidence has emerged of a problematic workplace culture at Virgin Australia following the airline’s sale to Bain Capital.

Former Virgin Australia chief medical officer Sara Souter. Picture: LinkedIn.

More evidence has emerged of a dysfunctional workplace culture at Virgin Australia resulting in the loss of senior staff since the sale to US private equity firm Bain ­Capital.

A day after former chief pilot Michael Fitzgerald launched legal action against the airline, alleging he was the victim of workplace bullying, details of the circumstances that led to the departure of the group medical officer have been revealed.

Highly respected in the aviation medicine field, Sara Souter is now with Qantas after taking stress leave from Virgin at the height of last year’s Delta outbreak and never returning.

In recent weeks, other senior people have called it quits, including head of crew culture Ryan Bradshaw after close to 20 years and head of people operations Jake van der Zalm.

It is understood Dr Souter came under intense pressure from chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka after a Covid-positive cabin crew member worked on five flights across three states in June.

The case forced other cabin crew members and pilots, as well as hundreds of passengers, into quarantine for 14 days as authorities in Queensland, Victoria and NSW scrambled to identify close contacts.

Ms Hrdlicka repeatedly questioned Dr Souter during thrice-daily crisis management meet­ings, demanding the airline’s small medical team ensure the outbreak be contained.

She was particularly upset that the original cabin crew member had been in close contact with a positive case but had turned up to work. At the time, this was within the health rules.

During this time, Dr Souter and her team were being inundated by calls from crew seeking support during isolation in quaran­tine hotels.

An internal hotline for affected crew, staffed by junior employees, was not set up for several days.

Ms Hrdlicka’s questioning of Dr Souter at crisis meetings was believed to have been the breaking point for the group medical ­officer, who took extended stress leave about a week into the airline’s Covid crisis. A few months later, Dr Souter started work as a medical officer with Qantas.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said: “This was an ­intensely pressurised period of time for all involved during a ­period of great uncertainty in ­respect to the severity and transmissibility of the Delta variant of Covid-19. No individual was ­singled out.”

Captain Fitzgerald, Virgin’s long-serving chief pilot, also went on personal leave shortly after this crisis, initially for a month. Although he was not in the direct line of fire from Ms Hrdlicka during this particular event, he had experienced similar pressure during tough talks over an enterprise bargaining agreement.

The Virgin Australia spokeswoman said she could not ­comment on the specifics of Dr Souter’s employment. “What we can say is that, ­operationally, it was a difficult time at Virgin Australia as we worked through the impacts of the initial and subsequent spread of the Delta strain of Covid-19 in Australia, the close-contact ­requirements across various jurisdictions, as well as a vaccination requirement put in place by Virgin Australia to keep our people safe,” she said.

“A number of our teams were dealing with circumstances we have never encountered before and we are proud of all of our people for the resilience and incredible hard work put in over this period to ensure the safety of both our guests and our people.”