Qatar Airways relax policies for female cabin crew

Qatar Airways will no longer sack its female cabin crew if they get married or pregnant, a senior official at the airlines has announced.

Rossen Dimitrov, the senior vice president who oversees the carrier's 9,500 flight attendants, also pledged to review a curfew and other concerns which last year prompted unions to file a formal complaint at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), accusing the Qatar-based airline of violating the rights of its foreign workers.

In June, the ILO ruled that Qatar Airways is discriminating against its cabin crew, 80 percent of whom are women, in breach of international labour laws, Arabian Business reports.

It said the airline's policy of reserving the right to terminate the employment of pregnant women and its banning of female employees from being allowed to be picked up or dropped off at the company premises by an unrelated male amounts to sexual discrimination.

Under the new regulations, women who become pregnant are offered temporary ground jobs and staff can also get married after notifying the company.

Other regulations which had drawn complaints from staff – such as women crew members must be picked up from work only by their father, brother or husband – are thought to remain in place, at least for now.

The recent changes had been brought into place after senior management began a review of working practices last year, and not in response to international criticism.

Earlier this year Qatar Airways won the airline of the year award for the third time at the annual Skytrax world awards at the Paris air show.

Photo from Qatar Airways Facebook.

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