Singapore Airways’ being pregnant pivot ought to set an instance to others

Within the Hollywood hit Loopy Wealthy Asians, the principle character flies into Singapore’s Changi airport and delights in the truth that it has a butterfly backyard and a film theatre. JFK airport in New York Metropolis is “simply salmonella and despair”, she remarks.

Changi, which opened in 1981, topped the annual Skytrax World Airport Awards for eight consecutive years earlier than the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. And if it units a regular for airports, then nationwide flag service Singapore Airways is the airborne embodiment of that trendy and cosmopolitan picture.

That is why the enduring concentrate on the “Singapore Lady” — a time period for feminine cabin crew coined in a advertising marketing campaign 50 years in the past — has been more and more known as into query by critics as outdated.

Tales abound concerning the airline’s guidelines for feminine cabin crew. On chat rooms and blogs, present and former flight attendants supply recommendation to these making ready for interviews and coaching. Many focus on the necessity to keep beneath a sure physique mass index stage and element how their make-up palette and even hairstyles are chosen for them, whereas others warn that candidates — who’re suggested to be “humble” and “elegant” — could also be rejected for having a mole on their face.

Singapore Airways isn’t the one flag service to rent enticing girls, in fact. However many within the city-state have been shocked final month to be taught that, up till this 12 months, Singapore Women have been fired once they grew to become pregnant. In October, the airline introduced that it had dropped a coverage that required feminine cabin crew to go away the airline after the primary trimester of being pregnant.

The change means pregnant cabin crew additionally obtain paid maternity go away for as much as 16 weeks earlier than being mechanically added to the subsequent flight roster, bringing Singapore Airways in step with different native employers.

The corporate stated cabin crew “might select to work in a short lived floor attachment” throughout their being pregnant, though they must apply for such roles. “All eligible cabin crew who’ve utilized for floor positions to this point have been provided obtainable positions appropriate for his or her experience,” it stated.

“If you put all of this collectively — the Singapore Lady, the actual fact they have been one of many final world airways to rent feminine pilots, the being pregnant guidelines — the optics usually are not nice,” stated one director at a girls’s rights organisation in Singapore.

Singapore Airways didn’t present a motive for the change. Advocacy teams recommend that the airline, which laid off 1000’s of workers throughout the pandemic, is determined to retain employees to satisfy the rebound in world journey. Changi is likely one of the world’s busiest airports and a high switch hub for Asia. Singapore Airways this month reported a document quarterly working revenue of S$678mn ($493mn).

The Affiliation of Ladies for Motion and Analysis (Conscious), a non-governmental organisation based mostly in Singapore, stated in an announcement that it was “shocked” that the service had continued the observe of forcing pregnant employees to give up for so long as it did.

“We will solely speculate as to why [the airline] determined to make the change this 12 months,” it stated. “It’s potential that due to the pandemic the job market is at the moment very tight and it is smart to not terminate workers’ contracts unnecessarily.”

Staff nonetheless have to use for floor work with no assure of securing a place, Conscious says. The exact grooming requirements stay unclear however may prohibit alternatives for returning moms, it added.

Maternity discrimination is towards the legislation in Singapore, so the query arises how the government-backed airline was in a position to implement the coverage till 2022 regardless of years of criticism. It additionally casts a pall over state efforts to handle office discrimination, notably towards girls.

Analysis carried out by Conscious exhibits that maternity discrimination remains to be a widespread situation in Singapore and different employers do discover methods to get round current legal guidelines. Conscious says its office harassment and discrimination advisory reported 71 maternity discrimination circumstances in 2021, out of a complete of 88 discrimination circumstances reported to them that 12 months.

Many hope that forthcoming anti-discrimination laws — a primary for Singapore — will likely be more practical in rooting out such practices by closing loopholes.

Lots of the circumstances examined by Conscious are associated to small and medium-sized enterprises, not main manufacturers reminiscent of Singapore Airways — which is why how the service treats its feminine workers is so necessary. Singapore Airways needs to be the sky-high bar different employers are held to, moderately than a ground.

mercedes.ruehl@ft.com / @mjruehl