Meet the airline with veto power over employee marriages

[EA757]

http://thestar.blogs.com/worlddaily/201 ... iages.html

[Old fella]

No wine/women/song....... one must want to fly airplanes there real bad.

[North Shore]

Lucky for those guys they were born floating on a sea of oil - if not for that accident of geography, nobody would do business with them because of their archaic beliefs...

[ajet32]

The South Asian carrier where I am on contract has the following rule for new hire Flight Attendants. It is applied to both female and male personnel.
They must be single on beginning the initial 2 year contract and agree to stay that way. If a female FA wishes to get married during the first 2 years then her future husband must buy out her remaining contract prior to her leaving to become married. I don't know if there is a penalty applied to a male FA. (Some get married and just don't tell the company.)

The human rights that we as "Canadians take for granted are not universal world wide nor are the rules of employment that we are used to at home.

[EA757]

Thanks for that insight ajet.

Just one question.

Why would you work for a company like that?
A company that does not appear to have
any respect for you or your co-workers.

[TG]

They are only a few decades behind us on this department:

http://femininityinflight.com/laborhistory.html

© Kathleen M. Barry, 2006 -
Women's Rights in the 1960s & 1970s

Many flight attendants had never cared for the airlines' long-standing no-marriage rule for stewardesses (no other airline employees were subject to it).
Many were also annoyed when airlines began in the 1950s to require them to retire or transfer to a ground job when they turned 32 or 35 years old.
Flight attendants' union officials complained about these policies and tried to overturn them through official grievances and collective bargaining, but airlines would not budge.

You have to remember that age and marriage restriction for flight attendants were the norms up to the end of the 60's.
Not to forget discrimination as well.

Awful rules though....

[crazy_aviator]

Yea, I reminise about the good ole days when STEWARDESSES were PRETTY, SLIM and YOUNG AND they never complained, did their job and didnt look at you like you just raped a cat when you ask for your second rum and coke ,,,,yep, the good ole days

[ajet32]

EA757 Not wishing to get in a flaming contest but you made a real jump from they don't allow marriage to the company treats workers so poorly. That is fairly standard in Asia, as are restrictions on height, weight and education including being able to speak at least several languages including English. It's all about service once you get out of North America something you don't see much anymore in Canada.
In this company an International Flag Carrier all employees are given A) a good salary by national standards, B) Fully sponsored health care, C) Transportation to and from work to their home whenever they work train or are otherwise engaged in company business, D) First class accommodation while on the road( no motel 6's), E) Very good for the region overtime pay, F) Pension.
I am sure there are other things, to be cabin crew at said airline is a very sought after job. I heard some where that about 1 in 50 are accepted. The overall treatment of staff particularly Flight Deck crew is far superior to anything I have ever experienced in 25 years of flying in Canada at the Regional and National level
I as a contract Captain get some of the above but none of the security that the local staff Flight Deck or Cabin Crew receive.
I also didn't have to go to the bottom of a seniority list again and start all over. For me the pay and time off are well worth it along with the friendly people and chance to fly somewhere new.

[Panama Jack]

Expats get a pension at QR?

[ajet32]

Don't know about QR this is South East Asia I'm talking about and we (expats) don't get a pension.

[EA757]

ajet,

Thanks for responding to my query.

I don't want a flame war either.

Sorry, if I wasn't clear on my point of respect.
I don't see from my conversation that I was inferring
that employees were treated badly. I did not say that
and I do not mean that.
I mean respect.

My thinking through all of this was simply,
would I want my single daughter flying for this airline?

You've done a great service and saved a
lot of time and effort with your response.

Thank you.

[scopiton]

yep, every area in the world has its own culture, and so does the boss.
from the same source :

Earlier this year, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker blamed unions for the dispute.
“If you did not have unions you wouldn’t have this jobless problem in the western world… It is caused by unions making companies and institutions uncompetitive and bringing them to a position of not being efficient,” Al Baker told Arabian Business.

“If you go and ask the politicians in most of the countries in the western world they would love to have the system we have: where the workers have rights through the law but they do not have rights through striking and undermining successful institutions that provide jobs to their knees,” he added.

at least in aviation the pay is good...........

[broompusher]

The scoop (from the inside)

I've been at QR now for the better part of 3yrs now. This is all common knowledge here and something that has just sort of become accepted as 'what it is'. There are a few things that are not clear in the article,
1. This 'rule' is for Cabin Crew (does not apply to office staff as far as I know)
2. This is not the standard in the country...only the company
3. Our Glorious Leader tends to treat the Cabin crew as his personal harem

PJ, no we don't have a company funded pension plan, just the standard End of Service Benefit based on years of service as is the law in these parts (same as you have I presume?)