SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Qantas Airways has been fined A$250,000 ($162,375) for illegally sacking an worker who advised workers to not clear plane arriving from China early within the COVID-19 pandemic, including to the airline’s reputational challenges.
The New South Wales state district courtroom issued the nice on Wednesday after discovering the provider responsible final yr of “discriminatory conduct for a prohibited cause” over the firing. The fees had been introduced by the state’s office security workplace, SafeWork NSW.
The worker, Theo Seremetidis, a carry truck driver at Sydney airport, raised considerations in February 2020 in regards to the security of staff assigned to scrub plane arriving from China, SafeWork stated.
He used his place as a union well being and security consultant to order staff to not clear the planes, and Qantas fired him, in response to SafeWork. The airline was fined along with being ordered to pay Seremetidis A$21,000.
“No work well being and security rep must be stood down for doing their job,” New South Wales Work Well being and Security Minister Sophie Cotsis stated in a press release.
“Let this case stand as a warning, not simply to Qantas however to all employers, to not discriminate towards their well being and security reps.”
Qantas stated it accepted the penalty and famous that it had “acknowledged in courtroom the impression that this incident had on Mr Seremetidis and apologised to him”.
“Security has at all times been our primary precedence and we proceed to encourage our staff to report all security associated issues,” the airline added.
The penalty comes as Qantas seeks to win again investor and public assist after a string of lawsuits and controversies resulted within the early retirement of its long-standing CEO Alan Joyce final yr.
The airline remains to be ready to find out how a lot it should pay after shedding a separate lawsuit accusing it of illegally firing 1700 floor workers in 2020 to cease them from taking industrial motion reminiscent of strikes.
It’s in the meantime defending a lawsuit from the Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee accusing it of promoting tickets to 1000’s of flights after they had been cancelled amid workers shortages and excessive demand after the nation’s border reopened in 2022.
($1 = 1.5396 Australian {dollars})
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Enhancing by Jamie Freed)
