A female train conductor has been fired by Canadian Pacific Railway over her racy social media pictures.
The company dismissed Stephanie Katelnikoff in November after accusing her of violating CP’s code of ethics according to evidence presented by the company in an internal investigation, says CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).
Photos posted by Katelnikoff on her personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, show her in various revealing and sexually suggestive poses. Some of the photos show Katelnikoff standing on railway tracks.
She had problems with her company in the past. She was fired initially when 15 cars carrying grain and fly ash (a material used to make concrete) went off the track in Banff, an Alberta tourist town in 2014. She was reinstated after the Transportation Safety Board of Canada ruled the derailment was caused by a fracture in the heel block assembly.
According to CBC, an Edmonton-based employment lawyer has said: “I was surprised that in the investigative material, CP choose to produce the racy photographs.”
The evidence package shows Katelnikoff also received a prior warning in 2016 for posting a YouTube video in which she criticized the then-CEO of the rail company. CP argues that she has taken revealing pictures of rail tracks which are public property.
She says she loves the job adding: “The work itself is amazing. It’s my favourite job I’ve ever had.” In a Facebook post Katelnikoff says: Hey #CPRAIL could someone maybe call me back about the thousands and thousands of dollars in wages you owe me? No one has returned my calls or messages but I know you lurk my social media because you fired me over modelling pics and socialmediawhatnot.”
She has a charity to give away bicycles to kids and so far given away 150 bikes. She also has an animal rescue charity.
In another FB post she says: “Hey @cprail if you want me to drop the arbitration, drop the human rights complaints, write off the wages and other monies you owe me, stop talking to the media and never come back again… 1) Buy 1000 bike’s to donate to local kids who don’t have one. 2) Donate $50,000 to my favourite animal rescue. Heck you’ll even get a tax receipt.
In a video she says she cannot understand why the company has called her pictures ‘graphic’. She says most of her social media pictures relate to her charity work and a small percentage is her modelling photos and other personal stuff. “I am confused when someone says my social media pictures damage the reputation of the company.”
