Flight attendant loses fair work appeal after being sacked for peach martini binge

Orange delicious sweet cocktail with tonic and vodka with sweet syrup in restaurant on wooden table over black background. Original alcoholic cocktails. Weekend at the bar

A Qantas flight attendant who was sacked after having a few too many peach martinis and gin and tonics has lost his appeal against a Fair Work ruling that upheld the dismissal.

Luke Urso collapsed in a toilet at the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in New York in 2017 after he said he drank two peach martinis and three gin and tonics.

Urso said the bar staff “free poured” the drinks, leading him to consume around 14 standard drinks instead of the five he intended, resulting in a hospital visit where he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.187.

Once he was discharged, Urso called in sick for a flight to Los Angelas he was rostered to work on and was sacked.

The hospital stay ended up costing Qantas $20,000.

News Limited reported a Fair Work full bench dismissed Luke Urso’s appeal, agreeing with Qantas that Urso’s evidence was “implausible and unbelievable”.

“The evidence tends to suggest that he had significantly more than five drinks, in which case “free pouring” loses whatever capacity it had to exonerate him,” the full bench said according to News Limited.

“We observe in any event that Mr Urso, who was clearly not a naif concerning the consumption of alcohol, could not seriously have thought that a drink in the nature of a peach martini would only contain one standard nip of alcohol.

“It defies common sense that a person exercising the requisite degree of restraint could put themselves in the position of consuming 14 standard drinks and then passing out in a period of well under two hours.

“That Mr Urso got himself in that condition was, we consider, the result of recklessness and misjudgment on his part.”

Qantas has declined Travel Weekly’s request for comment.

Latest News

  • Destinations
  • News

APT Launches 2025 Asia Adventures

APT has launched its Asia Adventures for 2025, including new luxury holidays in India, Sri Lanka and Japan. Five new tours lead guests to the highlights of India, including a seven-night cruise along the rarely travelled Lower Ganges aboard the Ganges Voyager. Further south, Sri Lanka’s greatest destinations are revealed on a new 15-day Land […]

  • Cruise
  • Luxury
  • News

Seabourn announces Western Kimberley Traditional Owners as Godparents of Seabourn Pursuit

Seabourn has named Western Kimberley Traditional Owners, the Wunambal Gaambera, as Godparents of the ultra-luxury purpose-built Seabourn Pursuit. It is the first cruise line to appoint Traditional Owners as godparents of a ship. Seabourn Pursuit embarks on its inaugural season in the Kimberley region this June. The naming ceremony will take place on Seabourn Pursuit’s […]

  • Luxury

Malolo Island Resort opens brand new Spa

Fiji’s Malolo Island has added another string to its bow – opening its $1.3 million day spa on Thursday, 18th April 2024. (Lead Image: matriarch Rosie Whitton with spa staff) Located at the edge of the resort’s luscious patch of tropical rainforest, the new “Leilani’s Spa” adds another level of elevated experiences to Malolo’s already […]