Ryanair denies ‘ambush’ in unfair dismissal case

A FORMER Ryanair executive has denied that the airline “ambushed” an air hostess who was sacked for gross misconduct by not giving her prior notice of allegations made against her by other cabin crew.

Vanessa Redmond is claiming she was unfairly dismissed by Ryanair after complaints she failed to carry out security checks on a flight between Dublin and Durham on May 19, 2005, because she had fallen asleep.

Áine McKevitt, a former employee relations coordinator with Ryanair, told the Employment Appeals Tribunal yesterday that she first outlined three of seven allegations made against Ms Redmond to her at a disciplinary meeting held on June 8 last year.

The complaints, made by two junior cabin crew, included the allegation that she had not carried out a landing security check on the aircraft cabin.

Dermot O’Loughlin, a SIPTU official representing Ms Redmond, questioned Ms McKevitt as to whether it was fair that his client had never been made aware of these issues until she attended the disciplinary hearing.

Ms McKevitt said she believed that Ryanair had carried out the investigation against Ms Redmond in a fair manner as she was still being given the opportunity to respond to the allegations. She rejected claims that the lack of prior notice meant Ms Redmond was being “ambushed”.

Ms McKevitt said Ms Redmond had been “quite short” with her answers when a passenger’s allegation, that she had been sleeping in the first row of the aircraft were first put to her at an earlier meeting on May 26, 2005.

“I found her responses to be of no substance,” said Ms McKevitt, who added that Ms Redmond had provided no evidence to support her denials of reading a book and being asleep on duty.

However, tribunal chairman Eoin Martin observed that Ms McKevitt might have overstated the passenger’s allegation, as he had merely noted that the air hostess was sitting in a position “as if to go asleep”.

Ms McKevitt acknowledged that it would have been preferable if Ms Redmond had been given a copy of the statement of the passenger’s complaint before the May 26 meeting.

Mr Martin suggested it was “silly and petty” that Ms McKevitt had blanked out the names on the written reports of the junior cabin crew as their identity would have been obvious to Ms Redmond.

He also pointed out that the reports of the two cabin crew members differed in almost their entirety, apart from the claim that Ms Redmond had sat down in the front row of the plane.

Ms McKevitt also accepted that no specific warning had been given to Ms Redmond about the seriousness of the matter or possible sanctions with the written invitation to attend the disciplinary hearing.

The hearing was adjourned until October 16 when it will take evidence via video link from the passenger, Matt Sheperd, who is based in Perth, Australia.