Worker's attempt to help mother of co-worker at expense of paying customers was serious misconduct
An Air Canada employee has had her dismissal for giving a co-worker’s mother priority over paying passengers overturned by an adjudicator in favour of a suspension.
Magdalena Kaszyca was a customer service manager (CSM) for Air Canada at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal. Hired in May 2011, Kaszyca was held to the Air Canada code of conduct that required employees to avoid conflicts of interest and to identify them, such as when friends or relatives were involved.
Air Canada had an employee air travel benefit program in which employees could fly for free and parents of employees could fly for a service charge of $5 per segment. Employees and parents flying under such benefits travelled on “stand-by” status, where they could board after all revenue passengers and employees travelling on Air Canada business were boarded.
On July 24, 2013, another CSM, Sonya Ventola, asked a manager of employee travel to upgrade her mother’s status for flying to Rome from that of an employee’s parent travelling alone to that of travelling with an employee. All flights to Rome were full, so the chances of he mother boarding with her current priority were slim.
The employee travel manager said Ventola’s mother’s priority could only be upgraded if Ventola travelled with her. Ventola, who was at the passenger check-in office, then talked to Kaszyca. Another CSM who was in the check-in office overheard Kaszyca tell Ventola “Leave it to me. I’ll take care of everything.” According to Kaszyca, she said “I’ll see what I can do with the flights.”
Kaszyca then began a verification of the oversell status of the flight to Rome. The flight was oversold by two seats. For an oversold flight of less than eight, nothing would be done until an announcement prior to departure asking for volunteers to give up their seats. However, a few hours before departure, Kaszyca asked a gate employee to make an announcement for volunteers to give up their seats. Kaszyca returned to the customer service desk telling the employee to make further announcements for volunteers, to the point where the employee found it “aggressive and annoying.”
Kaszyca also asked another CSM to free up space on the flight, suggesting a passenger bound for London via Rome be put on a direct flight to London. The CSM refused.
More than two hours before the departure time, Kaszyca told the gate employee to go to the gate and deal with “busted” passengers — those who were unable to make the flight who were connecting from a flight from Toronto. The employee felt the passengers could still make the flight and refused. Kaszyca then informed the passengers herself that they missed their connection because their baggage couldn’t be transferred in time, which didn’t make sense to the gate agent — there was still more time than the minimum required to make an international connection.
A customer service representative arrived at the gate one hour before departure of the Rome flight to find Kaszyca at the counter searching stand-by lists and connections. Kaszyca asked her to speak to the captain for authorization to give Ventola’s mother one of the two seats allocated to the crew for international flights. The representative refused and Kaszyca went to the captain herself, but was rebuffed.
The gate employee reported what was happening to the manager of general operations. The manager knew Kaszyca and Ventola were friends, so she launched an investigation. Kaszyca was suspended with pay during the investigation.
Neither Kaszyca or Ventola admitted they did anything wrong, but the investigator determined there was enough “circumstantial information” and witness reports to find Kaszyca acted improperly and served to create a “potentially poisoned work atmosphere for the subordinate employees involved, embarrass the company and employees and create a situation of frustration, anger and resentment on the part of the travelling public towards Air Canada.”
Air Canada dismissed Kaszyca effective Sept. 19, 2013, for violating the code of conduct. Ventola had her employee travel privileges suspended for one year.
The adjudicator found “there is no doubt Ms. Kaszyca was attempting to have Ms. Ventola’s mother board the flight to Rome…There is also little doubt that her efforts would not have been undertaken had Ms. Ventola not been a friend and colleague.” In addition, her repeated questioning of other employees had a negative impact on the work environment, said the adjudicator.
This warranted “severe disciplinary action,” but since Kaszyca had no previous discipline on her record, a lesser sanction that would serve as a reminder to act more scrupulously would be more appropriate, said the adjudicator.
