Shocking new details have been revealed about a FIFO worker’s embarrassment after she was sacked for sexually harassing two drunken male colleagues in a Qantas lounge and then on board a plane.
Evelyn Josey lost her $130,000-a-year mining job after loading up on free booze at the Qantas lounge at Brisbane Airport on her way to BHP’s Duania mine, west of Mackay on Queensland’s Coral Sea coast, the July 18 of last year.
Josey had recently separated from her partner and was very drunk when she began rubbing her buttocks against a co-worker she barely knew, according to a Fair Work Commission decision.
Ms Josey, who had been working for OS MCAP, BHP’s internal labor provider, was asked by her co-worker: “What are you doing?” She replied “it’s a pleasure to see you”, the court heard.
Moments later, while they were sitting together at a table, the witness claimed to workplace investigators that the brunette had tried to grab his private parts, although the accusation could not be substantiated.
Josey was still allowed to board his flight to Moranbah Airport, near Duania, and sat next to another co-worker.
Evelyn Josey was heavily intoxicated in a Qantas lounge before boarding a flight to work last July. The incidents that afternoon cost him his job.
Ms. Josey then attempted to take his hands and snuggle with him, before placing her head near her lap.
The awkward father-of-two pretended to be asleep in the hope she would leave him alone.
Josey was fired just before Christmas last year for serious misconduct. He took the matter to the Commission, but his claim for unfair dismissal was dismissed earlier this month.
He has since gone into hiding, blocking his social media accounts and changing his name.
Josey admitted in court that he doesn’t remember much of what happened that day, but said he experienced racism, misogyny and sexual harassment.
She had asked for compensation of six months’ salary and demanded to be reinstated to her old job.
However, Commissioner Sharon Durham concluded that her dismissal was neither harsh nor unreasonable and that Josey had sexually harassed her colleagues.
A $130,000-a-year FIFO worker was fired after she drunkenly sexually harassed two male colleagues inside a Qantas airport lounge and on a flight (file image)
Some of his colleagues described Josey’s behavior as “out of character and quite erratic” when he ordered two bourbons and cokes at the bar in the Qantas lounge.
“On that particular day I was having a bit of a tough time and I didn’t really feel like going to work and I started drinking very early,” he told the court.
He admitted that he had turned to alcohol in December 2021 when his relationship with his partner of 26 years broke down.
He said he had developed a drinking problem and also suffered from mental health problems.
After drunken encounters with co-workers, Josey told his shift manager that he was not fit to work the next day and instead took five weeks of leave.
Commissioner Durham accepted that she has been sober since the incidents.
Josey also claimed that she apologized to the colleague she slept with during the flight and asked him to forgive her.
However, both men said they were concerned about Ms Josey’s behaviour, with one nervous about flying with her again and the other worried about where she lived because she had left him at home on one occasion.
He claimed he had a drink in the Qantas lounge and when he went to put the glass on the table, he missed and spilled ice on the floor.
Josey was found to have sexually harassed his colleagues by rubbing his body against one of them in the Qantas Lounge at Brisbane Airport (pictured).
She alleged that her colleagues then laughed at her and she moved to another table.
Josey also claimed that if the incident had occurred as alleged, it was after hours with a friend.
The FIFO worker insisted the episode on the plane occurred while she was sleeping “and as such, she would not have had the capacity to make any conscious decision that would constitute sexual harassment”, the FWC heard.
His male colleague said he pretended to be asleep and “played dead,” but the unwanted touching continued throughout the 90-minute flight.
He said he was worried that Josey might have caused a scene if he asked her to stop, as she seemed drunk and erratic.
“As the stewardesses passed by, he gave them a look as if to say, ‘I don’t want to be here,'” the commission heard.
Commissioner Durham said that while Ms Josey’s level of intoxication may have had an impact, it “does not and cannot excuse” her behaviour.
The commissioner praised Ms. Josey for her efforts to regain sobriety following the incident.
But he also considered that his memory of the events of that day was “clouded by his extreme intoxication.”
His application for unfair dismissal was rejected.