Air NZ staffer fired for texts

An Air NZ flight attendant sent texts to her ex-lover. Photo / Thinkstock

An Air New Zealand flight attendant has been sacked after sending offensive text messages to one of the company's pilots - a man she had been sleeping with before they started working for the same company last year.

The woman, who the Herald on Sunday has agreed not to name, was fired on Tuesday after a seven-month saga for serious misconduct even though the texts, urging him not to interfere in her new job, were sent from a private phone in her own time.

The 42-year-old mother of one earlier had claims of harassment and bullying against Air NZ thrown out. She is in the process of lodging a grievance case in the employment courts.

Air NZ won't discuss the case, but communications manager Marie Hosking said: "Air New Zealand has clear guidelines in place regarding standards of behaviour expected of staff. Like any responsible employer we treat any abusive behaviour seriously."

The woman is speaking out to warn others of the perils of spur-of-the-moment texts.

The woman met the pilot late in 2009 on a night out. They had sex that night and several times over the next few months. However, she found out he was seeing someone else and broke it off.

In May last year she won a job with Air NZ.

"I sent him a message and said 'hey look I've got this job now and I really want to put this behind us. I don't want to take this into the work place at all'.

"He sent a text back saying 'That's cool'."

But on her second day at Air NZ there were problems. The pilot had friends and relatives working in the company and on a trip to Wellington from Auckland, she claimed they made her feel uncomfortable and it culminated in an argument with another attendant.

She said she spoke about her relationship with a staff member, gossip swirled around the company and it made her position increasingly uncomfortable.

"So I mulled it over and sent [him] those text messages on the 15th of July. I thought, 'am I going to be treated like shit on this job'?"

At 10.30pm she texted: "Oh and I don't take kindly to being the wrath of any c**** family girlfriends. I am meticulous. So please. I won't talk."

At 10.45: "Oh yeh. Think your both not men! But it is a job. So don't f**k it for me c***."

She regrets the trouble they caused. "I shouldn't have used them but it was heat of the moment stuff. You know the the thing that upsets me mostly is that this was meant to be personal, a private text between me and [him]."

She claimed over the next months the pilot and other staff requested not to fly with her.

She complained of bullying and harassment. But in a four-page decision, Air NZ cabin crew development manager Kerrie McGowan denied allegations of gossiping, being ignored and the woman given low marks for her work. "I do not believe that the matters you have raised constitute workplace bullying or harassment."

Kathryn Beck, an employment lawyer at Swarbrick Beck Mackinnon in Auckland, said though it was marginal whether employers could take action for conduct outside the workplace, people had to realise the power of electronic communications.

"Air NZ is likely to have an harassment policy. So even though she sent those (texts) as a former partner, she also sent it to him as a fellow employee."