Payout for Pacific Blue hostess humiliated by airline

Doreen Salton was a Pacific Blue air hostess for five years before her dismissal. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A flight attendant has won $1500 compensation for the "embarrassment" of being suspended from work for eating leftover in-flight meals, offering free food to workmates and failing to account for cash.

The Employment Relations Authority heard Doreen Salton - a Pacific Blue air hostess for five years - was summoned to a meeting with cabin crew development manager Dean Cullen on April 1 and questioned about her actions on a return flight from Auckland to Coolangatta the previous day.

She was told she was under investigation for misappropriation of company money and products and was suspended with pay.

At a subsequent meeting, Ms Salton was given a list of 10 allegations, including suggestions she had eaten leftover in-flight breakfasts and encouraged colleagues to do the same.

It was also alleged she sold in-flight entertainment systems to passengers for cash without recording the sale, gave another passenger a complimentary sandwich, and refused payment from a staff member for an item.

The authority was told Ms Salton was unable to account for between $40 and $220 believed to have been collected on the flight.

Cabin crew manager Ian Bishop said Ms Salton later admitted a number of charges, including failing to keep track of sales, authorising caterers to leave in-flight meals on board for crew "to pick at", and refusing to accept payment from a workmate for a blueberry muffin.

Ms Salton - who was officially dismissed from the airline in April after the airline found money had been "more than likely misappropriated" - took her case to the ERA, complaining Pacific Blue had gone to the original meeting intent on suspending her, without first hearing an explanation.

She also claimed the airline had been unjustified in sacking her.

In a decision released yesterday, the authority ruled Ms Salton's dismissal was reasonable, but agreed her initial suspension was unjustified.

The authority ruled that Pacific Blue managers had gone into the first meeting determined to suspend Ms Salton, when they should instead have stood her down from flying duties "to enable her to seek advice and support and to respond on the narrow issue of whether or not suspension was appropriate".

Though there were no grounds for claims of financial loss, the authority awarded Ms Salton compensation for "unnecessary humiliation and embarrassment" caused by her suspension.