A Jetstar pilot and union representative says he has been sacked for raising safety concerns and workplace issues in a newspaper article.

The Australian and International Pilots Association says it will take the case to Fair Work Australia.

But Jetstar says the employee breached a number of conditions of his employment and is standing by its decision to sack him.

Until this week Joe Eakins was a first officer with Jetstar based in Sydney.

He says the airline sacked him because he criticised his employer in an article published in the Fairfax Press.

"Whether you agree with the article or not that I wrote, the more important principle is, does a union representative, does a person concerned about safety and industrial issues in the workplace, have a right to voice those concerns to a wider audience? And I think that is really the important question," he said.

Mr Eakins says he had no choice but to go public with his concerns after Jetstar management refused to listen to his concerns.

"It was only as a result of really seeing the aviation sector at a crossroads and the large amount of concern that's been expressed by the vast majority of Jetstar's pilots that I felt the need to bring the issue to a wider audience," he said.

The article criticised the airline's decision to move some jobs to Singapore.

He also raised concerns that a new system of promoting pilots could affect safety.

"Pretty much all of the world's respected airlines use the concept of seniority to employ pilots," he said.

"It gives employees a sense of security so if I have a disagreement with the company, or they need to speak out about safety concerns, they won't have their careers jeopardised.

"If this contract proposal was to come through then pilots would feel under an immense amount of pressure to not speak up about safety concerns because it could affect their chances of promotion."

The Australian and International Pilots Association's Barry Jackson says it is a worry that the airline is seeking to punish someone for raising concerns about safety.

"He's also had some safety concerns which to us is a bit of a concern that they're not listened to and secondly, there is an industrial implication for anyone that stands up and says something affecting safety," he said.

Breach of contract

The airline says Mr Eakins was dismissed for a number of breaches of his employment conditions, including making public statements which harmed the company's reputation.

Jetstar Australia and New Zealand operations CEO David Hall says the airline encourages a culture of raising safety concerns.

"We have never sacked nor would we ever take disciplinary action against anybody raising issues around safety," he said.

"I strongly deny that. The issue at hand here is that this particular individual on multiple occasions had made statements that were in contravention of Jetstar's code of conduct against his individual employment arrangements, propagating material inaccuracies about activities and providing information into the public domain that is confidential and related to his employment.

"As part of the employment agreement ... [there is] a confidentiality clause to it and they are obliged to not put in the public domain any information that they become privy to as part of their employment.

"Similarly, to actively promote and encourage the Jetstar brand and not to raise issues that could be in any way detrimental.

"In terms of safety reporting systems, we actively encourage people to make statements that are constructive and appropriate into the safety and reporting systems which we actively engage with Joe, to talk with him about how all this came about.

"We sought to resolve the issue and there was no engagement nor acknowledgment that an issue actually existed."