A Jazz Aviation pilot terminated for falsely accusing his union of both taking bribes from the company and using its children’s charity to launder money has lost his bid to get his job back.
The regional airline fired Capt. Gregory Kenny in May 2019. Kenny — who had been with the airline and its predecessors for 29 years — grieved his termination and the case went to arbitration.
“Even if there was no just cause, or a determination that termination was too severe a penalty for this long-service employee — and the opposite conclusion is reached — reinstatement would not be an option,” William Kaplan, the arbitrator, said in a recent decision dismissing the case.
“By repeatedly making these false allegations (Kenny) has made reinstatement impossible. Being a pilot is a safety sensitive position and requires the trust and confidence of the other pilot on the flight deck.”
Jazz Aviation pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association.
Jazz argued that it had just cause for terminating Kenny, while the union argued there was no just cause, and if there was any cause for discipline, termination was excessive.
The company fired Kenny for both his “on- and off-duty conduct,” said the decision.
“Through comments and a widely circulated email, the company asserted that (Kenny) brought the company’s reputation into disrepute: without any evidence whatsoever, (Kenny) accused the company of bribing union officials to obtain favourable collective bargaining and other labour relations outcomes.”
That “created a toxic workplace,” according to Jazz.
“Aggravating the situation, in the company’s submission, was that the grievor accepted no accountability for any of his misconduct, making it clear that were he returned to work it would continue.”
Capt. Gil Renaud, the Jazz Aviation Master Executive Council (MEC) grievance chair, who had been close friends with Kenny, testified they “had a falling out” in 2017. That happened after Kenny got “extremely irritated” with his former buddy, who was trying to explain over the phone how to pursue a grievance, and “began denigrating him,” according to the decision.
“Renaud told the grievor to call him back when he was feeling better, but that was the last conversation they ever had.”
Renaud later learned that, in 2018 and 2019, Kenny was alleging that his former friend “along with others in the MEC, was acting improperly, indeed, criminally.”
Kenney had alleged that the company was paying off the MEC in return for favourable collective bargaining outcomes, that the MEC had settled a grievance, in exchange for money to be distributed among MEC’s members and that “a not for profit organization that the union ran called Jazz Pilots for Kids (JPFK) was being used for money laundering and other improper purposes,” the decision says.
Renaud heard this allegation from multiple sources and also that a grievance payment made by the company was taken by the MEC and “split among themselves or diverted for some other improper purpose.”
Kenny, the decision says, actually got a share of $1.4-million settlement that was distributed among the pilot group.
Renaud testified that he was never involved in the administration of the children’s charity: “It was 100 per cent funded by pilots and engaged in local community outreach and provided meals to children.”
Kaplan heard that the union executive distributed an email to its members titled “Embezzlement Allegations” in November 2018.
“Your representatives are not colluding with the company to siphon your money from you, and are certainly not stealing money from underprivileged children,” it said, according to the decision.
The bulletin went on to say the union executive had been “reluctant to dignify preposterous conspiracy theories with a response … The allegations are so ludicrous that they can have but one purpose, and that is to be as destructive and destabilizing as possible”
The “final straw” according to the arbitrator’s decision, came on Jan. 17, 2019, when Renaud got some text messages from a flight attendant who encountered Kenny during a stopover in Washington, D.C. She testified Kenny talked about the union accepting bribes from the company.
Four days later, Renaud filed a complaint with the company about Kenny’s behaviour.
That same day, Renaud learned Kenny sent an email to “at least 100 pilots” that hinted at fraud in the children’s charity and said the union executive had “pressured the pilot group” into accepting an 11-year deal “with very little improvement” in wages and working conditions, and listed the names of MEC members in office when the 2015 collective agreement was ratified.
In his email, Kenny referred to “Jazz management frequently issuing ‘directives’ to the pilot group, to have the Jazz MEC change the letterhead to their own and then reissue the same ‘directive.’”
Kenny also wrote that the previous separation between the company and his union had “all but disappeared.”
Kenny later denied making allegations that MEC members were taking bribes and diverting Pilot for Kids funds for their personal use, but the company didn’t believe him.
“Your lack of honesty and truthfulness in this investigation has compromised the company’s ability to trust you in the future,” said his termination letter. “The conclusions we have reached in this investigation has resulted in that breach of trust being irreparable.”
The consequences of his actions, Kenny said, include that “he no longer enjoys a comfortable lifestyle. His life savings have disappeared. His financial future is bleak.”
Kenny tried to claim whistleblower status.
Jazz countered that “that (incorrect) self-designation did not immunize him from the employment consequences of making false allegations against the company and against his colleagues, bringing the reputations of both into disrepute and creating a toxic workplace.”
The arbitrator had problems with Kenny’s credibility.
“There is no basis for concluding that on any material point anything the grievor said was truthful.”
Kaplan called Kenny’s bribe allegations “absurd.”
Kenny “never provided a scintilla of evidence to support one of his allegations,” said the arbitrator, who noted “termination is the appropriate penalty.”
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