Ryanair steward challenges dismissal for sleeping

Ryanair fired a senior member of its cabin crew because she went to sleep on duty and broke several security procedures, the company has told an Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Vanessa Redmond denies the allegations and will claim her dismissal was "harsh and extreme", her representatives have said.

Ms Redmond joined Ryanair in February 1999 and had reached the rank of senior cabin crew by the time of her dismissal in July 2005. On May 19th, 2005, she was the senior member of a three-person cabin crew on a flight from Dublin to Durham, when, the company claims, she broke procedures, abdicated duties and compromised passenger safety.

Ms Redmond is alleged to have blocked off the first row of passenger seats, sat in the row herself in breach of procedures, read a "fiction-type" of book and fell asleep or appeared to be asleep. The company also claims she failed to carry out security checks and delegated responsibility for vital security code to a junior crew member who started work with the company only days previously.

Ryanair's European business manager Samantha Clark told the tribunal that the allegations were made directly after the flight by a passenger who was a partner of another Ryanair employee. However Ms Clark said that Ryanair regularly recruits "mystery passengers" to report on staff performance in return of a free flight.

After she received the complaint, Ms Clark contacted the personnel department who advised she invite Ms Redmond to an "investigative meeting". During the meeting Ms Redmond initially denied all allegations, but after she was told a mystery passenger had been on board, admitted to blocking the first row and sitting there, Ms Clark said.

However she "strenuously denied" sleeping, and said that if she had been reading anything, it was her safety manual.

Following the meeting Ms Clark spoke to the two other cabin crew members. Mari Valialidet, who had been with Ryanair for less than a week and was working alongside Ms Redmond during the flight, confirmed the passenger's allegations.

Ms Valialidet told Ms Clark she had been sitting facing Ms Redmond when she fell asleep and that Ms Redmond had asked her to transmit the security code to the pilot.

Anna Duhora, who was working towards the back of the aircraft, said she had not seen Ms Redmond sleeping but was aware she had blocked off the front row, Ms Clark said.

Ms Redmond was summoned to a further meeting where she said she had blocked the row because a seat was wet, but denied all other allegations. She was dismissed four days later. Dermot O'Loughlin of Siptu, representing Ms Redmond, said she did concede she had blocked the row but the sanction had been "harsh and extreme" and she "robustly refutes" that she was asleep.

The tribunal has adjourned until July.