Qantas fined for firing worker who raised COVID-19 safety concerns

SYDNEY: Australia’s Qantas Airways has been fined A$250,000 (US$162,375) for illegally sacking an worker who urged workers now not to neat airplane getting back from China early within the COVID-19 pandemic, including to the airline’s reputational challenges.

The Original South Wales reveal district court issued the pleasing on Wednesday (Mar 6) after finding the provider responsible final year of “discriminatory habits for a prohibited reason” over the firing. The costs find been brought by the reveal’s build of labor safety place of business, SafeWork NSW.

The worker, Theo Seremetidis, a shield shut truck driver at Sydney airport, raised considerations in February 2020 about the protection of workers assigned to neat airplane getting back from China, SafeWork talked about.

He mature his space as a union effectively being and safety representative to notify workers now not to neat the planes, and Qantas fired him, based on SafeWork. The airline used to be fined to boot to being ordered to pay Seremetidis A$21,000.

“No work effectively being and safety fetch want to be stood down for doing their job,” Original South Wales Work Health and Security Minister Sophie Cotsis talked about in a press liberate.

“Let this case stand as a warning, now not simply to Qantas nonetheless to all employers, now not to discriminate in opposition to their effectively being and safety reps.”

Qantas talked about it accredited the penalty and famed that it had “acknowledged in court the impact that this incident had on Mr Seremetidis and apologised to him”.