Former lift truck driver, Theo Seremetidis will receive $21,000 from Qantas after the company was found guilty of illegally standing him down following concerns raised about cleaning aircraft in the early days of the Covid pandemic.
According to The Australian, Seremetidis was stood down from his role with Qantas Ground Services in February 2020 after he gave his colleagues a direction to stop unsafe work.
Seremetidis, the elected health and safety representative, was concerned about the potential of contracting the corona virus when cleaning aircraft arriving from China.
On November 16, last year, Judge David Russell ruled that Qantas participated in “discriminatory conduct” when it stood down the “conscientious” worker, violating workplace health and safety standards.
“I find that [Qantas] saw the giving of the directions by Seremetidis to cease work as a threat to the conduct of business and, in particular, a threat to the ability of [Qantas] to clean and service aircraft and get them back in the air,” Judge Russell said.
Today, Qantas agreed to compensate Seremetidis $21,000 for economic and non-economic losses incurred as a result of the airline’s unlawful actions.
According to the court, the airline will pay $6000 in economic loss compensation and $15,000 in “injury and humiliation” compensation to Seremetidis.
In a statement, Seremetidis said he felt the “David and Goliath battle” was finally coming to an end.
“This was never about compensation for me but about holding Qantas to account for its actions and standing up for health and safety representatives’ ability to carry out their duties to keep workplaces safe,” Seremetidis said.
“The smallest thing Qantas could have done was to say sorry, but they haven’t even done that.”
Source: The Australian
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