Union claims interference after 36 Victoria airport workers fired

Three dozen screening staff at Victoria International Airport were fired last week after Canada's air safety authority says it found "multiple instances of incomplete screening" in recent months.

However the union representing the 36 workers is claiming the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) improperly interfered in the matter, and is calling on Transport Canada, which oversees the agency, to intervene.

The workers, employed by sub-contractor Allied Universal, were working at a non-passenger screening checkpoint at Victoria International Airport (YYJ), according to CATSA.

"The findings indicate that the personnel involved did not fulfil their core responsibility to protect the travelling public," a spokesperson for CATSA told CBC News in a Friday emailed statement. 

"The security of the travelling public is CATSA's top priority."

Allied Universal is sub-contracted by CATSA to provide screening services at airports in B.C. and the Yukon, according to CATSA's website. The contractor did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

CATSA says its initial investigation at YYJ was spurred by a complaint, and preliminary findings led to a more in-depth probe in December and January that found the alleged problems. 

"As such, CATSA commenced its process to review the continued certification of these individuals as screening officers and advised the employer that their services could not be billed to CATSA under the current circumstances," said the statement.

Screening officers must be certified by CATSA to work in Canadian airports, whether they work for a subcontractor or not, according to the authority's website.

Allied Universal fired the 27 screening officers and 9 managers on Feb. 6 and 7, according to a Feb. 9 letter from their union posted online. 

"At no point did CATSA request that the employer terminate the individuals involved," said CATSA.

The security authority declined to answer questions from CBC News about the nature of the alleged mistakes and where they took place if not with YYJ passengers, citing security concerns.

However, three terminated employees told CHEK News they still have not been told why they were fired.

Len Rafter says he screened passengers, staff and vehicles at YYJ for 15 years and knew there were some "very minor" issues, but "nothing grievous, nothing erroneous."

"Not looking in a coffee cup … Wanding a little too quickly in pace. Those sorts of things were what were discovered," he said of the investigation.

'Appalling'

The union representing the terminated screening officers claims that CATSA did not accept Allied Universal's initial plan for the employees to return to work under a "corrective action" strategy and instead ordered the contractor to fire them.

"The lack of procedural fairness is appalling and may lead to a dangerous precedent in the future matters governed by the collective agreement and legislation," said Tania Canniff, general chairperson of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 140, in a Feb. 9 letter to members posted on the union's website.

"I've been representing screening officers since 2007, I've never seen CATSA disqualify screening personnel from working under the screening services agreement," she told CHEK News in a separate interview.

The union is calling on Transport Canada, which oversees CATSA, to intervene in the matter.

When asked if Transport Canada was investigating or would intervene, a spokesperson for the department declined to comment.

"As this is a matter between Allied Universal and its employees, all questions of this nature should be directed to Allied Universal," she wrote.