Qantas has been forced to pay compensation to an aircraft cleaner and workplace health and safety representative who raised concerns about cleaning a plane that had just been used to evacuate Australian citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.
Theo Seremetidis has been awarded $6,000 for economic loss and a further $15,000 for “hurt and humiliation”, while Qantas is yet to find out how much more it will be ordered to pay for breaches of health and safety law.
Seremetidis was stood down on February 2, 2020, after asking for additional health and safety measures to be put in place before his team set about a three-day-long deep clean of a now retired Boeing 747 that had just repatriated 241 Australian nationals from the then epicentre of the pandemic.
The team of cleaners had only been provided masks and gloves as a form of personal protective equipment, but Seremetidis asked for eye protection and additional training and risk protection before allowing his team to start the cleaning job.
Seremetidis told the airline that he was calling on his team to down tools under Section 85 of the Work Health and Safety Act, which gives employees the right to refuse unsafe work.
In a decision that allegedly went all the way up the chain of command to the senior management levels of Qantas, Seremetidis was stood down and removed from the workplace.
Qantas initially defended its decision to stand down Seremetidis, but just several months later, health and safety officials at SafeWork NSW said they would be investigating the airline for “discriminatory conduct and prohibited behaviour”.
During spot-check inspections, officials found cleaners were wiping down tray tables and other surfaces with dirty cloths and without disinfectant and were being made to handle soiled blankets, nappies and tissues without face mask protection.
