How were his actions deemed to be A FLIGHT SAFETY ISSUE ?!
I never said that there was a flight safety issue.
The same thing applies if you are working in an office or working on a farm. When employed by an employer the employer has the right to expect that during your working hours while being paid you are working exclusively for them unless they agree otherwise. Handing out leaflets for an organisation is doing work for that organisation.
The fact that BALPA was not paying this person to hand out the leaflets does not detract from the fact that they were working for BALPA.
Had the pilot spoken with people and said "see me after work and I will give you a leaflet" then there can not be a problem since people have the right to talk about anything they like and it would be alsmost impossible to prove that such "talk" affected the work being done.
Finally I expect that UK employment law will have no effect on this matter if the pilot was employed in Ireland or was "self employed".
Regards,
DFC