Grounded hostesses fail in court, but pass fitness test to get flying

New Delhi: More than a dozen `overweight' airhostesses litigated for three years against their grounding by Indian Airlines. On judgment day, the Supreme Court delightfully chucked the bulky petitions out on learning that the airhostesses had shed the flab and started flying again.
IA, fighting hard to shed the flab, had for the first time in 1987 stipulated that crew members would be taken off flying duties and treated to be on leave or leave without pay if his/her weight exceeded 10% of the outer limit till he/she got back to shape.
Over the years, the overweight grace had been gradually reduced from 10% of the stipulated weight to 3 kg and finally on May 4, 2006, the airlines even withdrew the 3 kg grace limit, which threatened many airhostesses with the prospect of grounding and leave without pay.
As many as 13 airhostesses challenged this new rule as arbitrary before the Bombay High Court . Withdrawal of concession was no ground for the airhostesses to challenge it, the HC had said while dismissing their pleas. Their appeals before the division Bench of the HC met the same fate.
09/12/09 Dhananjay Mahapatra/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Dec 2009, NACIL Dec 2009