Air India Grounds 125 “Overweight” Flight Attendants
Joe Cortez September 16, 2015
Over 100 Air India flight crew members could be grounded, as the carrier claims they are too heavy to fly.
Around 125 Air India employees may soon be looking for a new job, as the Indian flag carrier moves to enforce weight restrictions for cabin crew members. The Times of India reports the airline will likely ground the group of employees who failed to “shape up” within three months.
Air India reportedly classified around 600 overweight crew members as “temporarily unfit” last year. These employees were instructed to improve their physical condition within the stipulated time period or they would be subject to removal from flight duty.
Of those 600 employees, around 20 percent failed to meet or maintain the BMI required to continue working in air. Indian aviation regulations state a male flight attendant’s BMI must not exceed 25, while a female flight attendant’s BMI must not exceed 22.
The group of overweight flight attendants — now classified as “permanently unfit” — may still be allowed to work for the airline, just not in the air. Some of the 120 employees will be offered voluntary retirement, while others will be assigned ground duties.
This marks the latest in a series of employee crackdowns at Air India. In February, the airline announced that any employee responsible for delaying a flight would be subject to fines taken out of their paychecks. In May, Air India suspended 17 flight attendants for allegedly causing multiple flight delays. By August, the airline began offering employees a bonus for keeping flights moving on time.
[Photo: Air India]
@JDiver : These flight attendants were not fired. They probably got a very good deal in their hands. Air India is a government owned airline run by socialists. So jobs are for life with good pay and benefits unrelated to the work quality or work performance.
Thank goodness many of us live in the USA, where with the advent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 we rely on the "bona fide occupational qualifications" to determine whether a person is qualified for a job, rather than (as was previously the case in the USA) weight, marital status, physical appearance, etc.