An Aer Lingus air steward has failed to get a High Court injunction over his purported dismissal a year ago after his airside pass was not renewed following Garda vetting.
The main case by Lorcan Delaney, Castlefarm, Swords, Co Dublin, challenging the legality of the dismissal and seeking reinstatement, has yet to be heard.
Mr Delaney airside pass, which allows cabin crew to get unhindered to aircraft to work, had not been renewed when it was due for renewal in December 2019 because Garda vetting had thrown up a pending prosecution for possession of a small amount of cannabis and MMDA.
Slane festival
He had been arrested the previous June at the 2019 Slane Music Festival in Co Meath and was charged. But the case was dismissed in May 2020 when the judge hearing the charge accepted the drugs were for his personal use and that he had not come to Garda notice before.
He was told in December 2019 that garda vetting for his airside pass application had turned up what was at that stage his pending prosecution for drug possession. He was placed on unpaid leave until his pass was renewed but on February 20, 2020, he was dismissed as he still did not have the pass.
He brought High Court proceedings challenging the dismissal and seeking injunctions. Aer Lingus denies unfair dismissal and opposed the injunction application.
Refusing the injunctions, Mr Justice Senan Allen was not persuaded he had established that he would be exposed to a real risk of injustice if the injunctions were not granted pending full trial.
Warning
The judge did not accept the argument that he had originally been put on unpaid leave by reason of the pending drugs charge, but rather he had been repeatedly warned he would be taken off the payroll if he had no pass card and could not fly.
He also noted that by July of last year Mr Delaney had got another job on minimum wage, where earnings can be just under €20,000 per annum for full time work. The court heard his most recent salary with Aer Lingus showed he earned around €24,000.
In practical terms what he sought from the court was an order, pending trial of the action, requiring Aer Lingus to pay the difference between what he is now earning and what he would have earned if not dismissed, the judge said.
However, he said, there was simply no evidence of what that differential between the two jobs was.
It seemed to the judge it was by no means beyond the bounds of possibility that Mr Delaney has been better off in full time minimum wage employment than if he had remained on the payroll of Aer Lingus.
Due to the pandemic cabin crew staff wages are now just 60 per cent of what they were, the judge noted.
Mr Delaney had fallen well short of a requirement for an injunction that he must establish a fair question to be tried and had a strong case likely to succeed at the hearing of the action, the judge said.
