An EasyJet cabin manager has been sacked for gross misconduct after calling the airline’s stewardesses ‘lovely ladies’.
Ross Barr was ordered to leave after crew members and passengers made complaints about his inappropriate behaviour.
Customers complained when he used the in-flight PA system to describe his team as ‘lovely ladies’, saying he used the tannoy as an opportunity for comedy routines rather than safety briefings.
As he moved past a stewardess, he told her: ‘Oh I have just brushed past your boobs.’
On another flight, he was overheard telling one cabin crew member, ‘I’m not doing anything… I’m just staring at your ass’.
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When one of his colleagues was trying to pack a bag, he told her: ‘Having a problem trying to stuff it in? Bet you’ve never had that problem.’
One complainant said: ‘The entire shift pretty much he was talking about sex or making jokes about it.
‘He explained that he had been suspended before due to a speak up speak out that someone previously put in against him because “all I said was that her tits would get bigger if she got pregnant, and guess what they did”.
‘She also said that he had referred to her and another crew member as his “much more attractive colleague”.’
Barr started working for EasyJet in 2014, and became a cabin manager in 2017.
In 2022 he was brought into a disciplinary hearing after a sexual harassment complaint and issued a final warning.
But more complaints were made in 2023 and 2024, and he was sacked in September last year but appealed the decision.
He insisted his actions was ‘flirty banter’, claiming he was being discriminated for his sexual orientation as a straight man as his behaviour would have been accepted by ‘a gay colleague’.
But employment Judge Muriel Robison ruled: ‘As the cabin manager you are in a position of trust and I feel there has been a breakdown in trust in relation to these situations, you should conduct yourself in a manner that ensures your crew feel safe onboard the aircraft.
‘This is not the first time you have been in this situation with regard to your conduct and comments made to female crew members.
‘You raised that you were treated differently compared to others under similar circumstances due to your protected characteristics.
‘My investigation did not uncover any evidence to substantiate this claim.
‘It’s my belief the process followed was consistent and fair, and you were not treated any differently to your colleagues.’
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