Qatar Airways has defended its female flight attendant policies following media backlash over ‘outdated’ and ‘sexist’ findings published by the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
The airline told the Washington Post that it does hire cabin crewmembers that are already married, after the Federation published alleged findings of standard Qatar Airways employee’s contracts last week, which seemingly stated otherwise.
The airline also told the paper single employees do not have to ask for permission to marry, again initially stated by the Federation as an alleged policy in which crew contracts bar females from marrying for five years, and “even after that period they must seek the airline’s permission to marry”, it stated
“Qatar Airways flight attendants do not have to be, or remain single,” Qatar Airways senior vice president, customer experience, Rossen Dimitrov said in the statement to the paper. “Many of our cabin crew are in fact married.”
However, for “health and safety reasons”, the airline said cabin crew must notify the airline of pregnancies also to adhere to a mandate by Qatar’s civil aviation authority.
“If employees cannot fly because of pregnancy, they are “assisted with finding suitable ground positions,”’, the paper reported the airline stating.
Qatar was unable to specify when these policies took effect and comes after media slammed the airline last week following the alleged findings by The International Transport Workers’ Federation.
Initial media reports stated the airline’s policies as ‘outdated’ and ‘sexist’ after findings stated Qatar Airways’ contracts allegedly stated it only hired single female flight attendants who faced the possibility of being fired when pregnant.
