SECURITY workers at Brisbane International Airport have filed a complaint with the Federal Government over an order to remove passengers' headgear.
Employees of ISS Security, which is contracted by the Brisbane Airport Corporation, have told The Courier-Mail they were furious at the order demanding all passengers take off their headgear, including religious turbans, scull caps and veils, for the metal detectors.

"The order was given after a senior BAC manager did a walk-through wearing a hard hat," a worker said. "He was asked to go back and put the hard hat through (on the X-ray machine) and he decided that was too much hassle, and everyone should have to remove their headwear as a matter of routine.

"From that one incident, supervisors were instructed to make all workers have passengers remove their headgear and we were told if we didn't do that we would be stood down," she said. "There was no terrorism threat. It was just one BAC manager who didn't like the standard procedure."

She said staff demanded the order be given to them in writing but were refused.

"We knew we'd be the ones in strife if it ended up in the anti-discrimination tribunal, to which it seemed destined to go."

Staff estimated 13 people of the Sikh religion had to remove their turbans and a Muslim woman forced to remove her veil before the edict was lifted on Monday. [Link]