What prejudice? to start with, no one here (afaik) was present at the situation and know why the airline chose to suspend the member of staff - based on the news article it seems odd to me, but there may be more facts than a newspaper article chooses to mention

With a suspension occurring, then it does not seem surprising that the person is not being paid whilst suspended

Why should a "western viewpoint" be viewed as correcc; the person has chosen to work for a company in Dubai and its laws apply

Not like the "west" nevessarily has great emplyment laws - the US seems to be pretty poor in employee protections

How so very very true. Them's the "rules", as they say.

Mrs NoY & I have earned well into GBP 7 figures in the region, and whilst we grumble from time to time, we don't grumble too much (even though I did work for Emirates Group, which was pretty tough TBH)

I said apparent prejudice, not an absolute presumption of it - like most I have only the article to go by and I believe that is a fair opinion based on it. You even said "it seems odd" using the same source, so not so far apart in one breath but questioning no prejudice in another.

I also never said one or the other viewpoint is correct, just putting one Western view forward for discussion, as you have just done with the US reference.

Suspension on full pay is a regular occurence in many places depending on the nature of any alleged transgression.

For what it's worth, I for one hope too many places do not succumb to Western thoughts on right and wrong, but neither do I think that should preclude any discussion.

Exactly this, there is nothing wrong with local laws, I mean just because the Western countries frown upon it, doesn't make it wrong. Just ask Mary Robinson, a revered western diplomat who was specifically invited to Dubai after some unfair criticism in their treatment of women, and she was all praises. The reference to Dubai is purely because Emirates is based in Dubai and their policies will be partially based on laws of the region.

Lucky for the cabin crew this didn't happen in the west. I believe in the US, the airline would have fired her on the spot and side with the passenger right away. No airline union/HR to turn too there. The cabin crew have little or nil influence in the US. Emirates' cabin crew behave like they are on a power trip. So what if he wanted to sit in the business class or first class. It was empty anyways. The cabin crew should have been taking his cocktails order.

Are you for real?

#1 . If I as a passenger had paid a small fortune to sit in First Class and some lunatic on a power trip in his economy seat decided to come and sit in the same cabin as I and the crews reaction had been 'oh can I take your cocktail order' i'd be furious. What the heck, why don't we all just do that? Buy the cheapest economy ticket and just move into whichever seat we want and ignore and then verbally assault the cabin crew when asked to return to our allocated seat? What a great idea! Why don't they remove the onboard bar and install a boxing ring so passengers can fight over the empty J/F seats? Actually if i'm staying at the Ibis and there's an empty room in the Fairmont next door I should be entitled to just go stay there, right? Oh, i'm eating my Burger King meal but I spot an empty table in Nobu across the road, i'm gonna go there and demand to be served. Ridiculous!

#2 your assertion that in the US a flight attendant would be fired on the spot LOL. At the large airlines in the US F/A's are union represented. As are flight attendants for large companies in europe, most of south america, south africa, australia, nz, canada - even india. Remember the 'Dr Ho' incident in the US? He had done far less than this fool on the EK flight and was literally dragged off the United flight kicking and screaming (I am not condoning his treatment).

I am not saying that it was 100% wrong to suspend the crew member. This could happen at any airline worldwide although it would be probably termed as 'ground' them. And this is understandable. If there are questions as to how that crew member dealt with a situation then these need to be investigated. During the investigation interviews take place, reports read, witnesses accounts taken into consideration. Eventually a conclusion reached. What I cannot understand is why this suspension period would be without pay when the only factual evidence at that stage is that some idiot caused a ridiculous situation on board for the crew to deal with.

There is a big difference between not having a member of staff work in a particular area vs suspending them

When suspended, then I wouldn't expect the person to be paid during that time unless the investigation into the incident leading to the suspension was to exonerate the person , at which point would expect the suspension to be annulled and the person be backpaid for the suspension period

Have you been on the sauce?

Well, it's Friday ....

Regardless of the 'laws' (or lack thereof) i'd still expect any large multinational organisation to exercise a 'duty of care' to it's employees. Who knows, maybe this crew member became inconsolable after the incident. And to be fair, the incident does sound pretty traumatic. She was abused verbally and physically. So the answer is to suspend her without pay...because it's legal to do that?

It's legal in the UK for me to up and leave my eight and a half month pregnant wife who does not work and our two year old child. Would that make it ok? No. Sometimes there is a moral obligation involved. Or in the case of business, a duty of care. Especially one (although based in the mid east) that wants to be admired on a world wide stage.

Hi, first time poster and avid reader reader of the EK forum.. As I cannot post a link, here the update from Points Guy in his article:

[QUOTE][Emirates denied that the suspension ever happened.

�Emirates takes the safety of its passengers and crew very seriously. The cabin crew from this flight is being given full support and was never suspended without pay,� a statement emailed to TPG by an airline spokesperson said. �We cannot comment further on the alleged incident as this matter is now before the courts. The trial will resume on September 10.

Edit: This story was updated with a statement from Emirates Airline.

/QUOTE]

Unfortunately had to experience on quite a few flights lately that there are just too many DYKWIAs around who try to bluff their ways into business class and think they have all the entitlements in the world! Crews on all carriers I have flown with (EK SQ BA QF) have always dealt very professionally with these people, however, as this example shows, there are plenty of aggressive individuals around who treat cabin crews with no respect at all! Absolutely disgusting. The airline should ban this person for life!!

Before I get lynched, my reply was tongue in cheek. Though if you don't know about Mary Robinson, then fair enough.

In this particular instance, I believe its a case of lost in translation. I suspect the cabin crew is probably grounded to allow due process. She is probably being paid the base salary but not the additional add-on's they get as part of flying.

EDIT: Should also mention the comment about USA cabin crew was tongue in cheek too, since if you've travelled domestic there, you would realise how power hungry the cabin crews are and people have been offloaded because they didn't agree with the CC over trivial matters.

Your expectation that an Emirati company apply an English common law principle seems misplaced.

Given the seemingly contradicting reports, my guess is that the crew member was paid their "base" monthly salary, but not the part of the pay that comes per hour actually being on duty (which is significant).

I still do not know why the crew was suspended. If there is any investigation on her behaviour then it could be that she is send on administrative leave or just taken off the flying roster. Also please do not think that the staff care is only unique to the west. Many airlines in Asia also do protect their staff in these kinds of situations.