Flight Attendant News

Last month I posted a story on this blog about cabin crew in India -- all women -- who were grounded for being overweight. The women, most of whom are in their forties, believe that the weight restrictions are a ploy "to replace mature crew with skinnier women to survive in a highly competitive industry."

Sheela Joshi, one of the grounded women, was interviewed on an Australian radio show called "PM". She explained to the interviewer what she believes to be the real reason that she and her colleagues were grounded by Indian Airlines.

"Not the weight. The weight is never the issue for the image. You see if I'm half a kg over do you think it will spoil the image of the airline? I don't think so.

"You know, it's just they want to get rid of the senior cabin crew and they want the younger cabin crew because they can hire the younger lot in a much lower salary than us. But we have given our best time to the airline, the best youth time to airline. Now if we want to go and look for a job elsewhere, we have to start from scratch, you see.

"That's where we feel very bad about, you know, like after putting in 24, 25 years of service in airline, if they want to say that now you can say goodbye because they're getting a lower salary cabin crew. That really makes anybody upset because, you see, now, at this age you cannot find a job elsewhere."

The interview was broadcast around Australia on Radio National and ABC Local Radio. You can listen to the interview or read a transcript on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Here's the link:

Airline targets overweight flight attendants - Australian Broadcasting Corporation


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