Air Canada suspends, investigates bag-throwing workers

Air Canada is investigating two employees caught on camera throwing passenger luggage from a plane stairway to a trolley below. The employees have been suspended and could be fired.
 
It can be a constant battle to ensure employees follow procedure, especially if they see a shortcut that will make their task easier, and as phone cameras become ubiquitous it becomes more likely that those working in the public eye will be caught on film.
 
That’s the situation Air Canada now faces after a passenger on a flight from Toronto to Vancouver filmed employees dropping bags from the stairway.
 
In a statement, the airline's spokesperson Isabelle Arthur said the two suspended employees have been "advised that their employment will be terminated" pending the outcome of the company’s probe into the matter.
 
"Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage-handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand-carried to the ramp," Arthur said.

The video was posted to YouTube last Thursday. By Monday morning, it had been viewed more than one million times.
 
The union representing the two employees said baggage handlers are often under intense pressure from management to move items as quickly as possible.
 
"Management is pushing them to get the planes out on time," International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers spokesman Bill Trbovich told The Canadian Press. He said that the stairways that baggage handlers use are steep, and it would be dangerous to hurry down them.