Move comes after more than 59 employees become infected and amid dissatisfaction with how company handled risks

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Qantas staff are exploring options, including a class action alleging the airline failed to adequately protect them against Covid 19, after more than 59 employees became infected along with some family members.

The Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia has begun exploring possible legal avenues for staff, amid deep dissatisfaction about the way in which Qantas has handled what they say are the risks, particularly to cabin crew.

“Our members have asked us to explore what options are available to them,” vice president of the FAAA, Bruce Roberts, told Guardian Australia.

More Qantas flights revealed to have been crewed by staff with Covid-19 Read more

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) has now acknowledged that international cabin crew face a higher risk and issued new guidance to the airlines, as Qantas gears up to begin limited scheduled international flights to Los Angeles, London, Auckland and Hong Kong.

The flights will operate for a month, Qantas said.

Previously air crew were exempt from quarantine – unlike their passengers – to allow them to maintain a semblance of normal life while staffing essential flights.

Crew were told to social distance and not to interact with members of the community at risk ports. But crews were still able to eat out in the hotels where they were accommodated.

The emergence of recent clusters among flight crew had raised a new awareness of the risk of Covid-19 in returning flight crew and those operating repatriation flights.

With the cruise ship industry now banned from Australian ports, there has been growing concern about the possibility that international airline crews could become a new vector for infections into the community.

Far more stringent protections were taken on the most recent rescue charter flight from Uruguay which brought back a large number of infected people from the cruise ship, Greg Mortimer, to Melbourne. The planes were met by emergency staff in full hazmat suits.

Qantas’s medical director, Ian Hosegood had insisted that the risk to flight crew of catching Covid-19 on a flight was “low”.

“In most cases, employees have contracted the coronavirus while overseas including staff who were on holidays,” he has said.

“There’s been no confirmed cases of transmission of the coronavirus to employees or customers on board our aircraft, or any aircraft globally for that matter.”

But in recent days several alarming clusters have emerged.

Sources said there were now 15 cases associated with a Santiago rescue flight on 28 March. The airline says it believes cabin crew were infected while in overseas cities that had not yet put social distancing rules in place.

One crew member on another international flight, who was not required to self-isolate, has told the union that her 11-year-old child with asthma has now become infected. She is said to be deeply upset.

In the case of a Dallas to Sydney flight on 27 March, four crew have tested positive.

Guardian Australia has seen social media posts in which a crew member said they had not been told about Ruby Princess passengers being on board a flight to Dallas on 21 March a week earlier until several days later.

“If you saw my whinge the other day about the QF7 and finding out we had cruise ship passengers … fast forward 3 days and four of us from the same crew [have] tested positive for coronavirus,” he wrote.

“Don’t think about yourself ... think about who you live with because QF [Qantas] will not.”

Qantas insists there is no evidence the infections were acquired on board the aircraft but health authorities appear to have upped the precautions including altering the exemption for airline crew.

In its latest advice AHPPC published late Thursday, the committee noted “specific failures in controls” and has recommended more stringent measures, including either self-isolation away from family between flights or 14 days’ isolation on return, whichever is shorter.

A spokesman for Qantas said it has now implemented the stricter protocols and will pay for a hotel if staff do not want to isolate at their homes.

The committee has also recommended new rules for air crew in ports and on aircraft.

“If possible use an aircraft with personalised ventilation as this has been shown to reduce cross-infection,” the new advice says.

In order to reduce movement on aircraft, the committee says “meal and drink service must be minimal or prepackaged” and that “crew should be seated away from passengers and appropriate distance should be maintained between crew members where possible”.

“Contact between aircrew and passengers must be minimised,” it says.

When they reach their destination, air crew must now undertake self-isolation in their hotel room and order meals through room service . They must adopt strict social distancing and high standards of hygiene.

“The shortest possible stay to allow appropriate rest should be facilitated,” the new protocol says.

Frydenberg says easing coronavirus restrictions ahead of medical advice 'dangerous and unrealistic' Read more

Qantas also confirmed it would now pay its staff at their normal rate of pay during a period of self-isolation.

This had been a particularly vexing issue with the union which said staff exposed prior but stood down by Qantas were not being compensated yet were required to self-isolate.

All Australian states have been publishing lists of flights where there have been cases of Covid- 19, and contacting people in nearby rows where the positive case was seated, as part of their efforts to track and trace infections and to ensure people with potential exposure self isolate.

“NSW has had people who have returned from overseas on flights who have subsequently developed Covid-19. It is not possible to determine whether they acquired their illness from a close contact on the plane or in the community,” a NSW Health spokesman said.