Naomi Neilson

Judge David Russell found the major airline guilty of unlawfully standing Theo Seremetidis down over a direction he made to staff to cease cleaning planes that had landed from COVID-19 “hotspots”. It is the second ruling made against Qantas’ treatment of staff in nine weeks, with the High Court upholding a finding in September that it had illegally fired 1,700 ground staff at the end of 2020.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is pursuing allegations the major airline engaged in “false, misleading or deceptive conduct” by selling tickets to cancelled flights and failing to inform ticketholders if a flight was no longer available.

The case concerns a former cleaner, Theo Seremeditis, who was terminated for instructing others not to work in February 2020. Qantas denies any wrondoing.

In August, Justice Katrina Banks-Smith dismissed an application brought by former Qantas customer services manager, Sara Rossi, who claimed she did not have the mental capacity when she entered a deed in 2008 to end her claim for compensation.

Appearing in the Federal Court on Thursday morning (12 October), Thomas Bagley, counsel for Piper Alderman, said the firm had spent six months investigating the major airline and could be prepared to file its own proceedings within the next fortnight.

It comes after the High Court unanimously upheld a ruling earlier this month that the Flying Kangaroo was wrong to sack the ground handlers during the pandemic and outsource the roles to external companies.