Qantas to compensate worker for discrimination and hurt

Qantas has agreed to pay more than $20,000 to a worker who was stood down after directing others not to clean planes arriving from China early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The airline is set to be fined after being found guilty last year of breaching workplace health and safety laws, facing penalties in the range of $500,000.

Theo Seremetidis, a trained health and safety representative, was stood down in February 2020, hours after he directed others to cease cleaning and servicing planes over concerns they could be at risk of contracting the virus.

The direction came the day after the federal government closed its borders to direct flights from China.

A NSW District Court hearing was told on Wednesday that Qantas had agreed to pay Mr Seremetidis $6000 for his economic loss and a further $15,000 for “hurt and humiliation”.

The court is yet to determine Qantas’s full liability in fines, compensation and costs.

It is the first instance where a major airline has faced criminal prosecution for violations of workplace safety regulations.

Mr Seremetidis directed workers not to clean the planes under Section 85 of the Work Health and Safety Act, which sets out the right of workers to cease unsafe work.

The court was told the decision to stand down Mr Seremetidis went to the “upper echelons” of the primary defendant, Qantas Ground Services, and parent company Qantas.

Prosecution barrister Matthew Moir argued Qantas gave priority to its commercial and operational interests over the health and safety of its workers.

Qantas’s lawyer, Bruce Hodgkinson, argued the airline was attempting to deal in an educated and informed way with the unfolding pandemic.

There was “wide-ranging and very different opinion as to what was happening, and what may happen,” he said.

“That applied to the workers. It applied to the managers.”

Mr Hodgkinson also argued that had Mr Seremetidis consulted with management prior to making his direction, as was required under health and safety laws, the outcome might have been different.

Upon being stood down, the worker was immediately isolated from other staff and told he could not leave even to fill his water bottle in the staff meal room, the court heard.

“He was removed from the workplace and he was not allowed to return,” Mr Moir said.

Transport Workers’ Union national secretary Michael Kaine said the prosecution was the first of its kind but far from the airline’s first offence, pointing to Qantas’s High Court loss over the illegal outsourcing of ground staff and other cases.

“We need to see a complete cultural shift at Qantas and a ‘safe and secure skies commission’ to restore balance, fairness and stability to our essential aviation industry,” he said.