Stephanie really wanted to go to her uncle’s wedding, but her employer Transavia did not give her time off. So she called in sick and secretly went to the party. The airline believes that such a false report of illness is really unacceptable and now wants to terminate its contract. “If everyone does this, we will have a big problem.” Both parties met on Thursday before the subdistrict court in Den Bosch.
Stephanie works for the airline as a purser and in that position is the manager of stewards and stewardesses on an aircraft. She sat with her lawyer on one side of the subdistrict court office on Thursday. On the other side is Transavia’s lawyer and three employees involved.
It soon became clear why an earlier attempt to get closer had failed: Stephanie wants to keep her job, but Transavia believes that she really cannot get away with this and is quitting her job as of December 1, 2023.
And all for a wedding: the purser from Den Bosch really wanted to go to her uncle’s wedding at the beginning of July. That uncle meant so much to her that she went to great lengths to get that day off.
Asked too late
Although the request for a day off came quite late, Transavia employees said: only shortly before the wedding. And she had known for months that her uncle was getting married that day. Transavia’s planning could no longer fill that gap in the schedule so short in advance. The day off was denied.
That news hit the purser like a bomb, she couldn’t accept it. After 7.5 years of loyal service, she thought she was entitled to a day off. She became angry and irritated on the phone and told her unit coach that she was so upset by the refusal that she would call in sick so she could go to the wedding. And she did.
Transavia did not tolerate this behavior. And when Stephanie told her after the wedding that she had actually been there, she was told that ‘their paths would part’.
Lawyers have been working on the case ever since.
The woman argued in court that she had not worked in May and June due to a major operation and was still suffering psychologically from this in July, when she returned to work. The subdistrict court judge found little evidence for this in the documents, but did see that the woman had texted at the beginning of July that work was going well again.
‘Inappropriate’
He really resented her for going to the wedding anyway. “You knew it wasn’t allowed, but you did it anyway,” he said. “You didn’t act properly.”
Transavia employees told the judge that the trust is gone and they do not want to work with the purser again, because it is a bad example for all other employees. “They think they can do this once,” was the statement. “And if all employees do this once, we will have a big problem.”
The judge preferred to see a settlement. During the process he hinted several times at the possibility that the parties could still reach an agreement. But during the hearing, Transavia employees already said no and even fifteen minutes in the hallway did not help to reach a solution.
Both parties have not spoken to each other since the conflict and did not contact each other outside the room on Thursday. Only the two lawyers found each other in the hallway and had a brief discussion. But in vain.
That is why the subdistrict court judge saw no other option than to make a ruling himself. And that will follow within four weeks or October 26 at the latest.