Sometimes flight attendants can get injured on the job, and then get time off to recover. Here’s a fascinating story of how United Airlines became suspicious of one flight attendant’s sick leave, to the point that the company hired a private investigator to track his movements. He ended up being fired, and is now suing to get his job back.
United hires private investigator to track flight attendant
A former United flight attendant is fighting to get his job back, after the airline accused him of violating the company’s policy while on leave, over a work-related injury.
Fillippo Marinesi started working as a United flight attendant in 2014, and was even at one point awarded with the carrier’s “One Hundred Award,” honoring the 100 top employees in a particular year. Then in August 2023, he became injured on a long haul flight from Newark (EWR) to Dubai (DXB), suffering a spinal injury.
Upon his return to the United States, his doctor told him he would need to take time off to recover, and that was granted by the airline. Due to not earning flying pay, he experienced financial difficulties, and couldn’t afford to stay in his home near Newark. As a result, he decided to temporarily relocate to Kissimmee, Florida, to be with his family.
While he stated that his plan was to stay with his cousin, due to space constraints, his cousin made arrangements for him to stay in a hotel room. This hotel room happened to be in the same building as a new restaurant that was owned by his cousin.
According to the former flight attendant, in early 2024, United hired a private investigator to keep an eye on him. After some surveillance, the company accused him of working at his cousin’s restaurant, in violation of United’s sick leave policy.
The investigator reportedly took pictures of him over several days, following him around as he’d run family errands, do sightseeing, and return to the hotel. Then based on a combination of the surveillance and his social media posts, United accused him of unauthorized employment at his cousin’s restaurant, ultimately leading to his termination.
The former flight attendant is now suing the airline to get his job back, plus to secure back pay and punitive damages. He argues that he was terminated based on “assumptions and misinterpretations of the surveillance and social media content,” which was used to build a case against him.
For example, one photo used against him showed him handling food in the restaurant’s kitchen, though the man argued that this was a private family event, and the restaurant wasn’t even open to the public at the time.
I’m not sure what to make of this, but wow…
Obviously I can’t speak as to what this former flight attendant’s intentions were, and also, the totality of evidence that United has against him.
It’s fascinating to me that United would hire a private investigator to keep an eye on someone on sick leave. I assume that’s because the airline had good reason to believe that something was up. I’m curious, does anyone know how frequently this happens? I wonder what made United so suspicious in the first place.
Next, United flight attendants are unionized, so the fact that the union couldn’t help save his job sure makes you think that the airline had some pretty strong evidence against him. In theory, one major benefit of being unionized is having these kinds of protections when things go wrong, but obviously that didn’t go very far here.
Based on what we know, I can certainly see how all of this could be pretty suspicious. I mean, he moved into a hotel room in the same building as his cousin’s restaurant, and was then spotted in there several times, including handling food. That’s not to say he’s necessarily guilty or did anything wrong, but it sure sounds like what you’d expect an agreement to be in a situation where someone is being paid to work at a family member’s business.
Bottom line
A United Airlines flight attendant suffered a spinal injury while operating a long haul flight. He ended up getting sick leave approved, so that he could recover. However, the company became suspicious when he moved down to Florida, and moved into a hotel room in the same building as his cousin’s restaurant.
The airline ended up terminating his employment, accusing him of working while on sick leave. The airline determined this based on hiring a private investigator, and also based on social media content. Now he’s suing the airline to get his job back.
What do you make of this strange story?
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