\nMan was dismissed after incident with passenger over use of toilet on delayed flight\n<\/p>\n
Marie Walsh, manager for customer and on-board service at the airline, was being questioned on Tuesday at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on points of appeal raised by Alan O\u2019Neill, a senior flight attendant sacked by the airline in 2024.<\/p>\n
The company is currently presenting its defence to a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 brought by Mr O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s dismissal was with notice, on foot of findings of gross misconduct over his alleged behaviour towards a passenger on a delayed Marseilles-Dublin flight in April 2024.<\/p>\n
Ms Walsh, a former senior flight attendant, gave evidence that she upheld Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s dismissal from the airline on appeal.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Neill was accused of refusing to let a passenger, a man in his 30s, to use the bathroom on a delayed flight for up to 45 minutes after take-off.<\/p>\n
The length of time the customer had to wait is strongly disputed by Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s legal team, who say he was following standard operating procedures while the pilots had the \u201cfasten seatbelt\u201d lit.<\/p>\n
He told his bosses he was under strain in his personal life and that the man \u201ctriggered\u201d him by swearing when he was first refused, the WRC was told earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The passenger was reduced to tears by the time he had a chance to use the bathroom, when the aircraft was halfway back to Dublin from the south of France, according to the testimony of another flight attendant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened on board that day should never have happened,\u201d Ms Walsh told the WRC. \u201cMr O\u2019Neill was in authority over the cabin. He could have de-escalated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an adult who asked to use the lavatory. There were umpteen opportunities to avail of that opportunity and to advise the customer of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Surrounding customers complained about what they witnessed and one even told a colleague of Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s she felt \u201cintimidated\u201d, Ms Walsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not how we treat our customers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the incident had escalated over the course of nearly three hours in the air and on the ground at Dublin Airport, when Mr O\u2019Neill and the passenger ran into each other again outside Terminal 2 and had a further exchange of words.<\/p>\n
Counsel for the airline, Tom Mallon BL, appearing instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox, asked Ms Walsh about the grounds of appeal raised on behalf of Mr O\u2019Neill by his trade union, F\u00f3rsa.<\/p>\n
Mr Mallon said it was alleged in the appeal document there had been \u201cclear divergence from industrial relations practice\u201d in Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s case and that he had been \u201cpenalised for his activities\u201d as a trade union activist.<\/p>\n
She confirmed she was aware Mr O\u2019Neill had been a F\u00f3rsa shop steward at the airline and that she had invited him to a number of meetings in that capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s position as a union activist or representative, did that in any way influence your decision?\u201d Mr Mallon asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d Ms Walsh said.<\/p>\n
The case before adjudicator Michael MacNamee was adjourned overnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man was dismissed after incident with passenger over use of toilet on delayed flight Marie Walsh, manager for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,61,60],"class_list":["post-434194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aer-lingus","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}