Cancer patient takes on Qantas over denied sick leave

A Qantas veteran is among workers backing court action to try to reverse the airline’s decision to deny them sick leave.

Qantas has denied a cancer sufferer access to accrued sick leave. Picture: Getty Images.

A 30-year Qantas veteran enduring radiotherapy treatment for cancer is among a group of workers backing Federal Court action to try to reverse the airline’s decision to deny them access to their accrued sick leave.

The Federal Court on Tuesday will hear a union bid to overturn the Qantas decision to deny workers, including those on long-term sick leave, access to sick pay during the period that workers are stood down due to the coronavirus ­pandemic. Qantas argues employees are not eligible to receive paid sick leave while they are stood down because the entitlement is dependent on there being work for employees to be absent from.

The court will hear evidence from a Qantas worker who has been undergoing treatment for cancer since being diagnosed in August 2019. The man, who started with the airline in 1989, was due on April 5 to start seven weeks of radiology treatment using paid personal leave he had accrued.

But when Qantas stood down workers, the cancer sufferer was told his access to the sick leave was suspended. He said the decision had caused him significant stress.

Given he had accrued the leave, he questioned why he could not access it for his treatment during the stand-down period.

He said the company’s position has created financial concerns that otherwise would not exist and placed him and his family under significant pressure.

Transport Workers Union ­national secretary Michael Kaine said the “heartless” decision by the airline breached provisions of the Fair Work Act.

“It is an utter disgrace that Qantas workers, some of whom have worked with the company for several decades and are now battling very serious illnesses, have been kicked off their sick leave in this way,” Mr Kaine said. “They will struggle finan­cially and this will pile pressures and stress on them and their families, making it more difficult for them to battle their illnesses.”

Qantas said during the stand-down period employees would be able to draw down on annual and long-service leave as well as take leave at half pay and seek early ­access to long-service leave. Employees with low leave balances at the start of the stand-down would be able to access up to four weeks’ leave in advance of earning it.

“Employees are not eligible to receive paid sick leave while they are stood down,” a spokesman said. “Entitlement to paid sick leave is dependent on there being work for employees to be absent from, which is not the case during the period of the stand-down.”

Mr Kaine said the “attack on workers battling serious illnesses completes the picture of how Qantas has behaved since the virus outbreak began”.

“It has treated its workers like expendable cogs in its machine. It announced early on it was forcing them to bear the brunt of stand-downs by using their accrued, future and long-service leave,” he said.

“It refused to listen to worker concerns about the spread of the COVID-19, even standing down a worker, and has allowed several clusters to spread. Now sick workers are forced to go to the Federal Court over their right to sick pay.”