Air New Zealand has been told to give a flight attendant his job back after he was sacked for sitting down when the seatbelt sign came on.
Randall Wulff, who had worked for the airline for 14 years, was dismissed because the company said he could not be relied upon to follow standard operating procedures.
But the Employment Relations Authority found the national carrier did not have a firm foundation to dismiss him.
Mr Wulff argued that he had only ever intended to sit down if he felt unsafe.
The authority says the airline's were wrongly influenced by Mr Wulff's role as acting president of the Flight Attendants and Related Services Association.
Air New Zealand has been ordered to reinstate Mr Wulff and pay lost earnings since November 2008.
