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

Australia’s Qantas Airways has been fined A$250,000 ($162,375) for illegally sacking an employee who told staff not to clean aircraft arriving from China early in the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to the airline’s reputational challenges.
The New South Wales state district court issued the fine on Wednesday after finding the carrier guilty last year of “discriminatory conduct for a prohibited reason” over the firing. The charges were brought by the state’s workplace safety office, SafeWork NSW.
SafeWork said, the employee, Theo Seremetidis, a lift truck driver at Sydney airport, raised concerns in February 2020 about the safety of workers assigned to clean aircraft arriving from China.
According to SafeWork, he used his position as a union health and safety representative to order workers not to clean the planes, and Qantas fired him. The airline was fined in addition to being ordered to pay Seremetidis A$21,000.