Aer Lingus allege that their own staff steal 'millions'

AlphabetCards

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/aer-lingus-chief-says-staff-stealing-many-millions-of-euro-from-customers-and-colleagues-37585746.html

I was keen to post this story, as I may or may not have had a similar experience to some of the acts mentioned in this article. As a student, I did work for the DAA
and one year I was an aircraft cleaner for a nameless airline. I spotted a lot of nonsense going on, like people cleaning drop-down trays with the same smelly cloth they used to wipe down the bathroom, or people smoking on the planes when they were being taxied to and from hangers.

I knew a few of the permanent staff already, we all worked for a well known volunteer organisation*. These lads were pretty awful - anything that was found never made it to the lost and found section (which to be fair was run quite well)... frequently passports, wallets, phones were pocketed and taken as 'finders keepers' which was pretty disgusting. I expected that these lads were in the minority, however after I confided in a few people what I had seen, I was called into an office and let go. Now, I didn't quite care about being let go but what bothered me is that I always prioritised this nameless airline, as I felt that at least some of the money would return to the Irish economy. In reality I was putting my belongings at risk to a bunch of thieves.

I'm not surprised that staff are against CCTV being in the staff areas - a solid 30% of the permanent staff spend their shifts sleeping and ignoring radio calls, or hiding until lunch. Or other dodgy goings on in different parts of the airport...

* I returned home to Ireland recently and an old neighbour who is still in this organisation has told me they were caught red handed, being bold boys in a position of trust. Glad to see they were found out for who they are.

Kivaro

Delighted to see Aer Lingus bypassing the union in this situation.
The union reps will, in some manner, try to justify these incidences of theft or come up with weird excuses.

If Aer Lingus employees are stealing from the company, they should be arrested. But after reading some of the compensation cases in Irish courts recently, where fired workers sued their employer and then received money for being unfairly dismissed, you would have to murder someone before you can be legally fired by an Irish company.

Fann Linn

Delighted to see Aer Lingus eating humble pie in this situation and donating €25k to the Unions chosen charities.