Qantas illegally stood down worker who stopped cleaning of planes at start of Covid pandemic

A judge has found Qantas breached workplace health and safety laws in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the airline now set to be sentenced in a criminal court.

The decision has been hailed as a victory for workers by the transport union after SafeWork NSW brought the rare prosecution against Qantas Ground Services (QGS).

The criminal case was launched after the aviation giant’s subsidiary stood down a trained health and safety representative hours after he directed others to cease work.

The February 2020 direction related to the cleaning and servicing of planes arriving from China and came the day after the federal government closed its borders to direct flights from that country.

Qantas later outlined in a letter several reasons why it suspended Theo Seremetidis from his job, but the New South Wales district court judge David Russell said that was an unsuccessful attempt to find additional reasons to back up its conduct.

“I have found that the reason for QGS engaging in discriminatory conduct towards Mr Seremetidis was because he exercised a power or performed a function as a health and safety representative,” he said in his judgment on Thursday.

Seremetidis, who was a high-lift truck driver at Sydney airport, told the court his direction was based on government orders, bulletins and medical research indicating the virus could infect before symptoms emerged.

It came two days after Qantas provided employees medical advice that said the threat of infection outside China was very low and the risk of contracting the virus through normal duties was “extremely low”.

Qantas unsuccessfully argued the worker could not have held a reasonable concern on 2 February as he had not raised the alarm days earlier. It also made hay of the lack of prior consultation.

While agreeing discussion did not occur, the court found Qantas had not been concerned with starting a discussion or resolving the issue when it stood down Seremetidis.

Seremetidis was later sacked in a mass, unlawful redundancy but the court deemed him a reliable witness who had attempted to carry out his health and safety duties “conscientiously and carefully”.

The court dismissed other charges alleging the letter to Seremetidis constituted a threat and that his position was illegally altered.

Speaking after the decision, Seremetidis said he had experienced months of anxiety and depression as a result of the case.

“I was doing what I thought was the right thing and that was being punished for it because it didn’t suit the company,” he said of his direction to others to cease cleaning and servicing planes arriving from China.

“They were willing to punish someone rather than actually rectify the issue.”

The Transport Workers Union’s national secretary, Michael Kaine, hailed the outcome as a victory for workers and workplace health and safety representatives across the country.

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

Safework NSW and Qantas can appeal against the court’s decision but Kaine called on the airline to respect the verdict and immediately compensate Seremetidis.

“We’ve been vindicated that he did the right thing,” he said.

The NSW parliamentary secretary for workplace health and safety, Mark Buttigieg, said the decision was hugely significant and thanked Seremetidis for bringing the case.

In a statement, Qantas said it was reviewing the decision.

“We recognise that the initial stages of the pandemic caused a lot of uncertainty for our people, customers and the business more broadly,” it said.

“Our medical and safety teams worked tirelessly to provide daily updates to employees and to put effective controls and procedures in place to help protect our people and customers.”