Naomi Neilson

Despite successfully persuading the Federal Court to strike out the statement of claim last June, Justice Stephen Burley said he was not prepared to grant the three airlines the costs of their defence.

The judge made the damning criticism of the airline after Theo Seremetidis directed cleaning staff to steer clear of aircraft that had recently returned from Covid-19 hotspots in 2020.

The NSW District Court ordered the airline pay Theo Seremetidis $6,000 for economic loss and $15,000 for non-economic loss. It comes after Qantas was found guilty of unlawfully standing down Mr Seremetidis for a direction he gave to staff to cease cleaning aircrafts which had landed from COVID-19 “hotspots”.

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.