Court Criticizes Safety Official’s Inquiry into Flight Crew’s Work Refusal

Members of an Air Canada flight crew refused to work after learning that the pilot had told another flight attendant that he was going to “ditch” the plane and had “nothing to lose” because he was going to be fired anyway. A government safety official briefly looked into the work refusal and concluded it was unjustified as it was  based on a “normal condition of employment,” i.e., a personal conflict. A federal court disagreed, ruling that the law required the official to conduct a full investigation of the work refusal. The law didn’t permit officials to use preliminary inquiries into refusals to determine whether full-blown investigations were warranted, explained the court [CUPE v. Air Canada, [2010] FC 245 (CanLII), March 3, 2010].