'Shameless' BA fights to keep discriminating

BA bosses, whose attempt to outlaw strikes by cabin crew were recently ridiculed by a massive vote in favour of industrial action, have instructed lawyers to appeal against an Employment Tribunal ruling forcing the airline to stop discriminating against Hong Kong-based female cabin crew.

BA currently dismisses Chinese women when they turn 45 and, adding insult to injury, denies them a pension by claiming that British employment law does not cover its Hong Kong-based workforce.

But judges in two Employment Tribunal hearings took the company to task for trying to evade the law, pointing out that the cabin crew obviously spent part of their time working in Britain when their planes landed in London and were therefore covered by laws preventing race, age and sex discrimination.

Unite union organiser for cabin crew workers Steve Turner explained that it had taken the case to the tribunals on behalf of 17 stewardesses who had received abrupt dismissal letters after they turned 45 - in one case, even after an employee had worked for BA for 20 years.

"BA's continued mistreatment of these women is shameful," Mr Turner declared, criticising airline executives for wanting to overturn the ruling.

"We've appealed to BA not to throw money at expensive lawyers so that it can squirm out of its obligations, but to instead respect the tribunal's wishes that these workers must not be discriminated against on any grounds."

He added: "By continuing to fight this, BA's attempt to carry on treating a group of its workers as second class will reflect very badly on the airline and cause profound damage to our country's reputation overseas.

"BA should think again about the damage it is doing to its reputation, as well as the tremendous waste incurred in throwing skilled workers on the scrapheap when they still have years of service to give the airline."