Aer Lingus pilot accuses airline of ‘witch hunt’ against him – The Irish Times

A pilot accused Aer Lingus bosses of pursuing a “witch hunt” against him after he told colleagues that files including birth certs, private emails and police records relating to staff were openly accessible on the airline’s internal computer systems, a tribunal has heard.

Dale Connolly, a captain in command of the heavy Airbus A330 jetliner on Aer Lingus’s transatlantic routes, has brought complaints against the airline under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 – alleging he was penalised for blowing the whistle about a potential data breach.

He is one of three pilots currently pursuing similar cases against the airline at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

At a hearing on Thursday Mr Connolly explained that to secure time off and preferred duties during peak season, pilots had to “bid” for it on a company intranet platform, with planners taking into account factors like seniority and past history of working unpopular dates.

Mr Connolly said the issue first came to light after the bidding for winter leave in late 2024 closed that June and he went back to the portal to recheck his application when an issue arose.

“When I went into the link, I ended up in a directory that [contained] spreadsheets with everyone’s leave,” Mr Connolly said. He said he could see some “very personal” reasons his colleagues had given for their leave applications on a spreadsheet.

This included colleagues in relationships with each other asking to be “paired” in the holiday calendar, he said, along with details of a baby’s due date and other family events for fellow staff.

“There was a lot of information there that I shouldn’t have been exposed to,” Mr Connolly said.

He reported the matter to an office in the airline which attended to privacy matters, and was informed by reply in July that it was “a settings issue which has been resolved” and not a “data breach”, the tribunal was told.

Four months later, on 30th October 2024, Mr Connolly again had a problem with his roster after another bidding round, and returned to the intranet site for pilots to recheck his application.

The tribunal heard he then wrote to Eoin McLaughlin, an online operations and data specialist at the airline, warning he could “see files on OneDrive I’m not supposed to see”.

As well as “personal emails exchanged between a pilot and a TD”, Mr Connolly said he had also been able to view a birth certificate and police records. “Something is messed up and in clear breach of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation),” Mr Connolly continued in his email.

He then filed a data breach report with the Data Protection Commissioner – and posted about what he had found in a WhatsApp group with other Aer Lingus pilots, he said.

“I was alerting my colleagues, because I thought I had a legal and moral obligation to do so,” he said.

Mr Connolly said he later learned another pilot was “supplying screenshots” from the group to Aer Lingus’s chief technical pilot, Captain Paul Donnelly, who wrote to him on 31 October 2024 about what he had posted.

The complainant said he felt “intimidated” thatMr Donnelly would involve himself and wrote to the Aer Lingus chief executive, Lynn Embleton.

“I feared retribution. His email doesn’t read too insidious. I know it is, and I wanted her to know, and the disclosure to be protected,” the complainant said.

The airline’s director of corporate governance and company secretary, Méadbh Gallagher, wrote to the complainant on 4th November with a view to arranging a meeting, setting out her availability in the days ahead, the tribunal heard.

The complainant said he had been preparing to fly out on a four-day duty to Orlando, Florida the following morning.

He wrote back: “So you want my help on your time schedule after sending your dogs after me?” and added: “Call off your witch hunt.”

He said he was “massively frustrated” with the airline’s response to his concerns at that point, and later apologised to Ms Gallagher.

After arriving to Dublin Airport for duty, he realised he had been replaced as captain of the flight on the roster. Upon phoning in to inquire, he said he was transferred to Mr Donnelly.

A transcript of the call, quoted to the WRC, recorded Mr Donnelly telling the complainant he wanted to “discuss the non-response to my email and the email to Méadbh Gallagher” and told the complainant: “You’re stood down from that flight today.”

Mr Connolly’s barrister, Niamh McGowan, said this was a suspension which cost her client roughly €1,800 in additional allowances for the flying duty. Suspension is disputed by the airline.

The complainant said that during a meeting a few days later with Mr Donnelly, the senior managing pilot “lost his temper” and “shushed” his trade union rep, telling her “she wasn’t to talk”.

The complainant said that when he disputed the minutes taken by a human resources officer, Mr Donnelly accused him of making a “covert recording”, which the complainant denied. Despite his denial, Mr Donnelly proceeded to make a report “that a covert recording had been undertaken”, Capt Connolly said.

He said that although Mr Donnelly had described the meeting as a “a chat” the previous day, it was later treated as a formal disciplinary investigation meeting.

The claimant returned to flying duties after the meeting with Mr Donnelly, but was later given a 12-month verbal warning as a sanction.

The airline decided he had broken a staff social media policy by posting about his data protection concerns in the pilots’ WhatsApp group and that he had used an “inappropriate tone” in his email to Ms Gallagher.

Mr Connolly said the warning remains live on his personnel file and has prevented him from applying for two opportunities for promotion.

Tom Mallon, for the airline, argued Mr Connolly’s concerns were “properly dealt with” in July and November 2024.

The complainant’s email to Ms Gallagher was “nothing short of shocking”, he said, adding that the disciplinary process was limited to that email and the WhatsApp posts, which he argued “could not be protected” by whistleblower shield law.

Adjudicator David James Murphy has adjourned the case to a future date. His maximum jurisdiction in the matter under the disclosures legislation extends to more than €1.3 million, in view of Mr Connolly’s stated €270,000-a-year pay.

Ms McGowan is instructed in the matter by Thomas Cochrane of O’Connor’s Solicitors, on behalf of Mr Connolly’s trade union, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA). Mr Mallon is instructed by Róisín O’Donoghue of Arthur Cox LLP.