Qantas workers who have been stood down during the COVID-19 pandemic are taking their fight for sick leave to the nation’s highest court. A Federal Court appeals bench rejected their claim in November, saying that because the employees were not working there was nothing to take leave from. Qantas won an earlier Federal Court case in May. But the workers say they cannot afford to get by on JobKeeper if they are sick, and they should be able to take sick leave they have accrued and be paid at their usual rates. The staff are still entitled to annual and long service leave, as well as the JobKeeper payments. But requests for sick, carers’, compassionate and personal leave have been denied. The lawsuit is backed by four unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The ACTU says that seriously ill workers have had their sick leave stopped in the …