Qantas illegally stood down worker who raised cleaning concerns: court

afr.com:

A court has found Qantas acted illegally when it stood aside a health and safety representative who raised concern over cleaning planes that had returned from China at the start of the pandemic, in a decision the NSW government said would have big ramifications for employers.

Qantas says it is reviewing the ruling by the NSW District Court that it illegally discriminated when it stood down ground worker Theo Seremetidis because he had raised health and safety concerns in February 2020.

Judge David Russell ruled that “the dominant reason for engaging in the discriminatory conduct was because Mr Seremetidis had raised an issue or concern about work health and safety with other workers, namely the risk of workers contracting COVID-19 while cleaning and servicing planes arriving from China”.

NSW Labor MP Mark Buttigieg said the ruling recognised the rights of elected health and safety representatives and should empower more workers to follow the example of Mr Seremetidis, putting employers on notice.

“What Qantas did was say ‘no, we don’t want you exercising that right, we’re going to stand you down’,” Mr Buttigieg said outside court on Thursday.

“The fact that SafeWork have had the capacity and the ability to bring this successful prosecution to the courts is very significant. We shouldn’t have rogue employers like Qantas trying to subvert the law and sack workers.”

Mr Seremetidis said that at the start of the pandemic workers were panicking as Qantas planes returned from the COVID-19 epicentre.

“No one wanted to go on those planes arriving from China,” he said outside court.

“The consequence of being a safety rep is that you become a target. Qantas had punished me many times.”

Qantas has said previously that workers were