Air Canada focusing on employee theft

Crew members under investigation for stealing beer, soft drinks — airline pegs losses at $9 per day for every employee

Air Canada’s pilot and flight attendants are upset with the airline because of the way it conducted an investigation of employees involving the theft of beer and soft drinks from Air Canada’s airplanes.

The airline’s corporate security investigators flew to France and searched the Paris hotel rooms of some crew members, with the assistance of hotel security, after they had checked out of the rooms following a layover. The investigators sifted through wastebaskets and took pictures, according to a report in the Montreal Gazette.

An internal letter signed by the chairperson of the master executive council of the Air Canada Pilots Association, expressed “grave concerns” over the handling of the alleged theft.

“I deplore the abusive techniques used by corporate security in the investigation,” wrote Capt. Rainer Bauer.

The airline, which has posted four losses in the last five years, launched a program last fall to focus on employee theft. Air Canada estimated it’s losing as much as nine per cent of cabin stock each year as a result of employee theft, or roughly $9 per day for every employee.

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