Air Canada crew hotel rooms searched! Could this happen to you?
I'd like your thoughts on this. I was appalled that this could happen after the fact but I guess we all know the rule, dont pilfer!!
From "Skytrax" 16th Jan.....
"Air Canada investigators flew to Paris recently to search the hotel rooms of flight-crew workers, sifting through waste baskets to find cans of beer allegedly pilfered from planes, the Montreal Gazette reported.
Several crew members are now facing investigation and could be fired, the newspaper said.
The investigation has outraged some flight attendants and pilots, who say the airline could have dealt with the allegations diplomatically instead of conducting searches.
"This is the first I've heard of an investigation of this magnitude," said Peter Foster, a spokesman for the Air Canada Pilots Association who has been with the airline for seven years.
Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur would not explain why the investigators were sent overseas. "We consider it an internal matter," she said.
The theft investigation occured just before the new year when crew members were on a layover in France, the Gazette reported.
Air Canada corporate-security workers reportedly entered the hotel rooms of crew members, together with hotel security staff, after the crew had checked out. They searched the rooms and took photographs of the contents of garbage cans.
Foster said the items allegedly stolen from Air Canada planes were a variety of "mixed beverages," such as cans of beer and soft drinks.
An internal letter to pilots, signed by Capt. Rainer Bauer, chairman of the Air Canada Pilots Association, expressed "grave concerns" about the airline's handling of the alleged theft.
"I deplore the abusive techniques used by corporate security in it's investigation," Bauer wrote. Foster said there is still uncertainty as to which individuals were involved. "But frankly, we kind of deplore the technique that was used, which had people going through peoplle's hotel rooms after the fact. There are other ways of addressing suspicion.
The airline's rules state that crew members cannot take any food or beverage, which are viewed as company property, from the aircraft. Last fall, the airline said it was launching a program to focus on employee theft.
"We would prefer to think that our collegues are honesr, but sometimes that's not the case, "Yves Duguay, Air Canada's senior director of corporate security risk management, said in a company newsletter in September.
Air Canada recently estimated it's lossed at as much as nine percent of cabin stock each year as a result of employee pilfering-roughly $9 per day for every employee. Some flight attendants said they feel Air Canada is unfairly targeting cabin crews for acts as petty as taking a can of coke. The pilots' union says it does not condone theft of any kind."