February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
As expected, Aer Lingus chief Michael Foley has brought disciplinary proceedings against him to a halt using a court injunction, and has questioned the role of the company chairman, Bernie Cahill, in the investigation that found him guilty of sexual harrassment.
The High Court in Dublin granted Foley an injunction that prevents Aer Lingus from taking any further action against him, although he remains suspended from his job, the Irish Times reports.
Last week, a committee of the board found that Foley had sexually harassed two female employees, director Joan Loughnane and Anne Lawlor, a staff member at the company’s Dublin airport head office.
In court, a statement by Foley was read out. It revealed that Cahill had asked him to step down on April 19.
"My refusal to accede to Mr. Cahill’s suggestion generated a good deal of ill feeling on his part toward me," it said.
Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo
Subscribe to one of our great value packages.
The statement also suggested that Cahill had convinced Lawlor to make her allegations.
"He said he had documents which she could fill out in order to do so. She said that she was shocked and had no idea what he was referring to. She said he was quite strong in pursuing the issue with her. She said he told her that he had received another complaint and when she asked him who it was, the chairman told her it was Joan Loughnane."
Aer Lingus refused to comment, and was not represented in court. Foley released a further statement saying that he welcomed the injunction, a first step in clearing his name of "scurrilous allegations."
"I am advised and so believe that I have a contractual entitlement to an appeal," he said. "The board does not acknowledge that I have that right and appears to envisage that I may not be entitled to take the matter any further once the special subcommittee has reached its decision."
No reference was made to the actual accusations. Lawlor’s complaint was lodge on March 22, and Loughnane’s on Feb. 20.
The incident involving Loughnane is reported to have taken place in the presence of three other directors, one of whom, William Clarke, said that Loughnane was "visibly shaken" after the incident. Clarke admitted that he disliked Foley from the day he joined the company, while Foley alleged that the two other directors in the room at the time of the alleged incident noticed nothing untoward.
The incident comes on top of a series of troubling events for state-owned Aer Lingus, which was to have been privatized this year. The company slashed fares in April in response to the foot and mouth crisis that hit tourism to Ireland and the UK hard.