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Hong Kong cabin crew win fight against discrimination by British airline
21 January 2010
An employment appeals tribunal in the UK yesterday ruled that a British airline did not have the right to discriminate against its female Hong Kong cabin crew. The airline had argued that because the cabin crew were Hong Kong nationals, they were not subject to UK employment law.
British Airways (BA) was attempting to justify dismissing female Hong Kong cabin crew once they reached the age of 45, denying them pension rights and leaving them with only a one-off payment of a few thousand pounds. Their UK counterparts retire with a pension 15 years later at the age of 60. BA claimed that it could discriminate in this way because UK employment provisions did not apply to its Hong Kong workforce.
However, yesterday an employment appeals tribunal supported an earlier decision in 2008, ruling that the airline was wrong to claim that the women's Hong Kong nationality excluded them from UK employment law jurisdiction.
The ITF-affiliated union Unite condemned as "disgraceful" BA’s treatment of the Hong Kong workers, and has been leading the fight for the airline to treat all cabin crew employees equally.
Unite national officer for civil aviation Steve Turner, said: "BA's treatment of these women is disgraceful. There will be widespread revulsion that the national carrier - which flies the globe with this country's flag on its fin - has a policy of treating its overseas crew as second class citizens. Not only is it a waste of a talented and dedicated workforce to dismiss them at 45, it is immoral. This practice reflects very badly on BA as an employer, but it also does profound damage to Britain's reputation overseas.”
The ruling means crew dismissed at the age of 45 by BA are entitled to have their claims for discrimination heard in the UK courts.
Carol Ng, chair of the British Airways Hong Kong International Cabin Crew Association, has been representing the claimants and is a key tribunal witness. She said the judgement would change lives: "The Hong Kong crew will be delighted by today's judgement, but they will be very worried that BA will simply ignore or challenge the tribunal's judgement.
"We urge BA now to listen to the court - stop fighting your workers and do not waste more money denying them justice.”
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