A British Airways engineer who was kicked out of office for improper installation of parts into the plane has been awarded at least £25,000. This comes after he won a case against the British airways for constructive dismissal. In his arguments, during the case, John Higgins said there were serious staffing problems which caused extreme pressure in his operations. He added that the British Airways had given him heavy workload with very tight timeliness which, according to him, was not realistic. He also said the error caused did not have any effect on the operations of the craft.
According to their arguments, the bosses at the British Airways maintained that before an appeal which lead to Higgins’s demotion, they had already sacked him. Higgins rejected the new post whose salary was half his initial salary and for that reason he resigned. The judge identified that the sanction imposed on Higgins was not justified and therefore decided to rule in favor of Higgins. This earned him a total sum of £25,000 payable by the British Airways.
The judge said that the demotion to three grades down and drop in salary was very humiliating and would lead to a very bad relationship between the two parties especially after having worked together for such a long time. The judge continued to say that there were no justified grounds for the British Airways tribunal to sanction Higgins.
A contractor who was working under Higgins had damaged some wires and Higgins came to repair them after which it was identified that he had repaired the wrong wires. British Airways held that the repair and maintenance of aircraft is important for the safety of their customers and they have always given the highest priority to safety of their customers.