“Beauty instead of professionalism is scary”: How Aeroflot lost
Yesterday, the court declared illegal the requirements for the size of clothes flight attendants "Aeroflot". The fact that the company puts pressure on female employees over forty or over forty-eighth in size became known at the beginning of the year: flight attendants of the company were told that Aeroflot reduced their salaries and made it impossible to fly international flights. The first attempt to go to court was unsuccessful: in April, the court rejected the claim of Irina of Jerusalem, which demanded that the company discriminate staff members by height, weight and clothing size.
Yesterday the Moscow City Court overturned the decision of the Presnensky Court. “The court ruled that subclause 7.1 of Aeroflot’s requirements was not applicable to the presentation of requirements for the size of clothes,” lawyer Ksenia Mykhaylichenko, who represented the interests of flight attendants in court, told RBC. Flight attendants Evgenia Magurina and Irina of Jerusalem were awarded five thousand rubles of compensation and ordered to return the salary supplement. Representatives of Aeroflot insisted that the requirements for the appearance of flight attendants are justified, since more weight prevents them from moving quickly through the cabin and moving between rows of seats, and may also prevent them from fully performing their duties when evacuating passengers. We talked with Evgenia Magurina and Irina of Jerusalem about court, discrimination and attitude to the profession of a flight attendant.
It all started last year, in January-February, when they announced that new rules of the game appeared in our airline: now only young and slim will fly abroad, and “old, thick and scary” will fly around Nizhny Novgorod, and preferably more at night, so that no one saw them. We had an internal document with the airline (I hope that after the trial it will not be there anymore), according to which the flight attendants' salary depended on the size of the clothes. In women with clothes more than forty-eighth, part of the allowance was withdrawn, on average it is three and a half - four thousand a month.
This story touched me a year ago, in mid-August, when my flight geography changed dramatically. Since rumors had been circulating for a long time, I realized that I was put on these “magic” lists (then someone from the well-wishers sent them to me - there were six hundred names). The airline decided to get rid of people who, in their opinion, do not fit into the standards of beauty, Mr. Savelyev (General Director of PJSC Aeroflot. - Approx. Ed.). We were removed from international flights, we were removed from the duties of a senior flight attendant - and this is also a certain amount in income. At the moment I lost about twenty thousand in salary.
Unfortunately, in Aeroflot there is no document that would determine the geography of flights, and in this regard, the management has its hands free. Today we have four groups of flights and four groups of flight attendants - their flights depend on which group they belong to. All flight attendants were photographed, some were also measured with a measuring tape and, accordingly, the sizes were divided into several groups. If you are a "true Aryan", then you fly everywhere. If you do not fit into the canons of beauty, then you have a conditional Nizhny Novgorod.
I may not be so educated: there are people who will keep silent, and if they are hit on the left cheek, they will substitute the right. I do not think so, and Irina and I decided to assert our rights. I was hoping to the last for the prudence of the management - I filed a claim on the last possible day. Nevertheless, some global changes did not happen. The only thing is that they began to give us a raid (our salary depends on it): if I flew sixty hours before the scandal, now I fly my eighty-eighty-two. I added Karaganda and Bishkek, and Irina, as she flew in the Russian Federation, was flying.
Victory, of course, unexpected, tortured, suffered. I believe that justice and common sense have triumphed. I suppose that the leadership knew that we would not stop at the Moscow City Court, and I think that they made the decision not to endure a scandal outside of Russia.
I hope that our court will help to change the situation as a whole, because, of course, we have created a precedent. The only problem is that our people are very silent: the majority are limited to loans, children, elderly parents, so not everyone can go against the management - especially against Aeroflot. Few people believed in us, everyone said: "Where are you going against the system? Aeroflot will destroy you." Nevertheless, we survived - although, of course, this is a hassle, anxiety, of course, was not easy for us. Everything also depends on the employee. If employees will resist the employer, then, of course, there will be no such legal mayhem. Well, if everyone is silent, then the employer will be from the employee to twist the rope.
I have been in aviation for fifteen years and have not seen such absurdity as in Aeroflot in any company. In fact, it is not clear that such a halo exists around this profession. The flight attendant is a normal job, hard physically and emotionally work. Aviation is associated with increased danger. But someone decided to transfer the experience of, let's face it, Asian countries - in European society there is no such thing - in Aeroflot, putting beauty in the first place. In my opinion, this is utter nonsense: we are not fashion models, we took a job as a flight attendant. An airline is an enterprise that primarily transports cargo, baggage and passengers. When beauty takes priority instead of professionalism, it’s scary. Now senior flight attendants fly with us with a year of experience - decide for yourself as far as possible and, most importantly, safely.
Our salary began to depend on appearance quite recently: in my case since November last year, in the case of Eugene, a little earlier. It was last year that a massive photographing of flight attendants began, the measurements - allegedly in connection with the rebranding of the form. The requirements for cabin crew members have clause 7.1, which we challenged in court yesterday: it specifies requirements for cabin crew, for men and for women - height, body mass index and size range.
I work in this company for twenty years. I work honestly, well: the leaders reward me with letters, give me thanks, I have a lot of thanks from the passengers. Last year, when I extended my testimony, I was given a personal contribution rate, it became significantly lower. I asked the management to explain what it is connected with, because there are no comments on the work: I speak a foreign language sufficiently, I correspond to all other duties.
Aeroflot officially replied that the size of the form (note that this is not my size, but the size of the form obtained in the warehouse) does not meet the requirements for cabin crew members. I turned to Aeroflot with a request to recount the surcharge, since I considered the reduction illegal. In the company I was told that the grounds for recalculation of the allowance can not be seen. After that, I was forced to go to court to protect my rights. In accordance with the Labor Code, only the business qualities of the employee should be considered, and the size of the form does not apply to them - this is what we proved yesterday at the Moscow City Court.
I believe that the court decision is correct - we have proved that the document violates the labor law of the employee. We are waiting for the reasoning part of the court decision - in two weeks we will see what the court was guided by. Still, the question remains whether this item is considered discriminatory or not.
If we take foreign companies, European and American, then, of course, the situation is different there. Looking at the flight attendants of KLM, Air France or the same Delta, we clearly see that they have no restrictions on appearance, on the size range and, most importantly, on age. The situation that has developed in the airline, has touched more and older people. Someone went to court, as we, and others chose to quit: they created such conditions under which it became unbearable to work. The management of our company has taken an example from Asian airlines. We are more of a European company, so I think that putting the experience of Asian companies at the forefront is not entirely correct.
It seems to me that only in our country there is an opinion that a flight attendant is something related to visual appeal. Neither in the requirements of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, nor in the air code - it is not written anywhere, what external data a flight attendant should have, there are several other criteria. The opinion that a flight attendant is necessarily something unearthly is a stereotype, and it has nothing to do with real life. Many flight attendants who come to get a job have the impression that this is a romantic, easy job, and flight attendants are so magical and airy. When people encounter this profession and realize how difficult it is, the expectations of very many are not justified, and they leave. This is a very hard physical labor, in addition to this, you need to have, for example, stress resistance. This profession alone contains a thousand others, and not everyone will be able to work on it. Earlier, when I first came to work, they said that there were no random people in aviation.
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