Qantas fined for ‘shameful’ silencing of worker raising Covid safety issues
Qantas has been ordered to pay a whopping $250,000 for retaliation against a worker during the Covid pandemic.
The airline removed ground crew worker Theo Seremetidis after he began calling out safety concerns about cleaning aircraft from China.
Seremetidis was a health and safety representative for Qantas employees.
Qantas’ conduct against him was ‘shameful’ a judge said.
District Court Judge David Russell ordered Qantas to pay the $250,000 fine of which half goes to the prosecuting agency, SafeWork NSW.
“Even when he was stood down and under investigation, Qantas attempted to manufacture additional reasons for its actions,” the judge said.
Qantas was guilty of unlawfully standing down a safety representative and banning him from the airport.
Seremetidis never returned to work as Qantas outsourced his and another 1,700 positions in a cost cutting move.
This outsourcing was deemed illegal after a long legal fight between the airline and unions.
Qantas previously agreed to pay Seremetidis $21,000 in damages but the court ordered fine is in addition to this.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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