A B737 captain attempted to stop passenger boarding to protect a mechanic working near hazardous equ...

Narrative:

Zone disregarded flight deck direction and put a mechanic in an unsafe situation.the mechanic was working on the tv panel at the entry of the aircraft. We asked via operations frequency to stop boarding for maintenance. Boarding continued. We asked operations why. The response was that zone had decided we did not need to delay boarding. The zone person made that decision without asking for additional information. We had asked to delay boarding because the mechanic was being pushed up against an exposed high power panel where he was working by passengers boarding.who is the final authority of the aircraft once the crew is onboard and passengers have started boarding?fom states ...the captain's authority is absolute during all flight-related operations including pre- and post-flight decisions. I reviewed the fom and found references to coordination including dispatch and [operations] but nowhere could I find that zone control had authority.I would like an answer to who has final authority in this instance.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain attempted to stop passenger boarding to protect a Mechanic working near hazardous equipment but a company zone person refused his request; overriding the Captain's authority as described in the FOM.

Narrative: Zone disregarded flight deck direction and put a mechanic in an unsafe situation.The mechanic was working on the TV panel at the entry of the aircraft. We asked via operations frequency to stop boarding for maintenance. Boarding continued. We asked operations why. The response was that zone had decided we did not need to delay boarding. The zone person made that decision without asking for additional information. We had asked to delay boarding because the mechanic was being pushed up against an exposed high power panel where he was working by passengers boarding.Who is the final authority of the aircraft once the crew is onboard and passengers have started boarding?FOM states ...The captain's authority is absolute during all flight-related operations including pre- and post-flight decisions. I reviewed the FOM and found references to coordination including dispatch and [operations] but nowhere could I find that zone control had authority.I would like an answer to who has final authority in this instance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1265427
Time
Date	201505
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 14800 Flight Crew Type 700
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A B737 captain attempted to stop passenger boarding to protect a mechanic working near hazardous equipment but a company zone person refused his request; overriding the captain's authority as described in the fom.