Employment Law Mini-Trial

Ms.Wing started her employment on oct.26, 2003.She worked as a dispatcher with 12 others covering schedules over 7 days 24/hr a day with rotating shifts ranging from 9.25 to 12.25 hrs a shift. A little over 3 months after she started Ms. Wing went off work for almost 4 months. This was just the beginning of her health problems that would be recurring. Just on the first two years and half of employment period she was absent for a period of eight and half months. This pattern continues through till 2009 when we decided to terminate her employment at friendly skies. We were aware that her absenteeism was not a fault of hers. So, we adopted the" wait and see attitude" in the hope that she will get better. We constantly required medical reports from doctors she was following up with. Indeed we were genuinely hoping for her return. Her lengthy and frequent absenteeism interfered to a great extent with the workflow and operations of the centre as a whole.

Flight dispatching is a delicate operation and the alertness of the dispatcher is essential. Given the size of the workforce, the employees were seriously strained with overtime since they have to pick-up the hours not covered by Ms. Wing. The cost of paying the overtime was between $5000 and $7000 a month. Despite all this, we continued hoping for her recovery and eventual return to work.

The situation was not improving,Ms. Wing absenteeism only got lengthier. The medical report obtained on May 13, 2007 stated that she will always suffer from a generalized fatigue and lethargy. This is was not an indication that the situation would improve. Although we were fully aware that it is not of her fault, as a company, we have obligations and responsibilities towards our employees and the customers we serve. Monitoring 285 flights a day is no easy task. We believe that by giving Ms. Wing this whole time to recover and get back to work the organization has exceeded the accommodation to the point of undue hardship. Additionally, we offered Ms.Wing a part-time casual work as a dispatcher, although not permitted by the collective agreement. Ms.Wing rejected the offer. We believe that this is an indication that Friendly Skies accommodated Ms.Wing to the point of undue hardship.

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