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The Supreme Court has set aside a judgment of the Negombo High Court and a Labour Tribunal and upheld the termination of services of a male Sri Lankan Airlines senior flight steward.
The court found the flight steward responsible for grave misconduct in the sexual harassment of a female cabin crew member.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Janak de Silva took up an appeal by SriLankan Airlines against the decision of the Negombo High Court and the Labour Tribunal which had said the dismissal of the steward was bad in law.
In no uncertain terms the judges ruled that , SriLankan Airlines must adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.
Justice de Silva with Justices P. Padman Surasena and Mahinda Samayawardhena were in agreement of the ruling.It was on a Colombo-London flight in 2005 that the steward had sexually harassed the flight stewardess.
The SC judgment determined that the conduct of the respondent steward amounted to “grave misconduct”.
“It formed part of a revolting culture among some flight stewards at SriLankan Airlines,” it said. “There had been many oral complaints of sexual harassment during the period 2004-2005. In addition to the complaints, around 100-200 flight stewardesses had resigned during this period.”
“Later, the management of SriLankan Airlines had taken necessary steps to constitute a committee to further investigate these complaints,” the judgment said. “There it was observed that a majority of the complaints were directed against the Respondent which consisted of about 80 complaints.”
“ including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction,” the Supreme Court held.
As the judges pointed out, “Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical contact and advances, sexually-coloured remarks, showing pornography and sexual demands, whether by words or actions.”
SriLankan Airlines adopted a policy against harassment at workplace in 2007.
