Fired pilot fails in attempt to get job back

A pilot accused of sexually harassing a flight attendant while drinking on a stopover has lost his bid to get his job back.

The pilot, who was not named in an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) determination, was dismissed last June after a year-long inquiry by the airline, also unnamed, into his conduct concerning alcohol use, sexual harassment and failure to act responsibly as a captain.

The inquiry was sparked by an incident in which the pilot, a first officer and a flight attendant bought and drank a large amount of alcohol during an unplanned stopover, despite being likely to resume flying the next day.

After the drinking session, the attendant told police a serious sexual offence had been committed against her by one or both of her co-workers while she was affected by alcohol.

Despite the eventual decision of the police not to charge the pilot, the airline inquiry concluded he had sexually harassed the attendant. That, with his actions in buying and drinking alcohol and his failure as a captain to act responsibly and exercise leadership, amounted to serious misconduct, the airline said, and he was dismissed.

The pilot lodged a complaint with the ERA claiming he was unjustifiably dismissed, saying there had been predetermination and bias on the part of the airline. But ERA member Alastair Dumbleton said the airline's report of the inquiry gave no foundation for the claim of bias.

"It is plain from the volume of material presented to the authority and the contents of it that [the airline] committed a great deal of time and other resource to its inquiry, which I find was thorough, extensive and methodical," Mr Dumbleton said.

"Overall, the report is a workmanlike and robust exposition of [the airline's] inquiry and the views it formed from that. The report gives no sense that [the airline] was simply going through the motions with a preconceived view of [the pilot's] responsibility for serious misconduct."

In regards to the allegation of sexual harassment, Mr Dumbleton said he was satisfied the question the airline had addressed was whether the pilot had sexually harassed the attendant, not whether his actions had constituted a crime.

"I find that the conclusion of [the airline] from the inquiry it carried out that [the pilot] had sexually harassed [the attendant] was one that a fair and reasonable employer would have reached in the circumstances."

He ruled that the pilot had no sustainable personal grievance and that the airline's decision to dismiss him was appropriate.

- NZPA