Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The firing of Dennis Wayne Darnell - who has not been convicted - prompted charges the airline is more concerned with negative publicity and its effect on travelers than helping an employee overcome an apparent substance abuse problem.
"This would not have happened if the article [in the Roanoke Times & World-News over the weekend] had not run," said Jeffrey Rudd, Darnell's attorney. "I'm convinced of it."
Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein ruled there is enough evidence to convict Darnell of the prescription charges, but withheld a formal conviction pending a . . . Darnell, a mechanical inspector at Roanoke Regional Airport . . . already has "taken the first step toward contesting the termination." background investigation. Friday, he ordered probation officers to tell USAir that Darnell, 37, had pleaded guilty to obtaining Percocet by fraud.
"Weckstein's intention was to help him keep his job," Rudd said. "Weckstein's effort was to protect citizens and the company while at the same time preserving Darnell's effort to keep his job.
"The information I got from USAir was the reason he was terminated was the publicity of the case. The airline's going to say, `Punt the guy' because this is undermining the confidence consumers have" in the airline and its safety.
A company spokesman in Charlotte, N.C., said Darnell had been "terminated. The reason is, he allegedly took some actions that constituted a felony. If an employee is convicted of a felony, the company can take action of this kind."
Rudd sees it differently: "At this point in time he hasn't been convicted of anything, but he's already been terminated."
Darnell's termination notice lists three reasons for his firing, Rudd said:
Darnell brought USAir's name into the public eye without authorization.
Darnell identified himself as a USAir employee - "which he did not," Rudd said. "He has not said a word in these hearings."
Darnell was convicted of a felony.
Rudd said Darnell, a mechanical inspector at Roanoke Regional Airport who belongs to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, already has "taken the first step toward contesting the termination."
The machinists' contract with USAir allows discharged employees, provided they work full time and have 90 days of service, to request a hearing "so all the facts are brought out and known," said Vic Mazzocco, the Pittsburgh-based assistant general chairman for District 141 of the Machinists.
Since 1989, federal law has required the nation's airlines to perform random drug testing on 50 percent of their "safety-sensitive employees," including pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and certain supervisors.
Fewer than one-fourth of 1 percent of the 134,000 employees tested last year tested positive, according to the Air Transport Association, an trade group in Washington. The testing program costs airlines some $10 million annually.
Rudd would not say whether Darnell had ever been tested by USAir.
by CNB