"Qatar Airways urged to scrap policy allowing it to sack pregnant cabin crew", 16 June 2015

The International Labour Organisation has called on Qatar Airways to scrap contracts that allow it to sack cabin crew members for being pregnant. Following a year-long investigation sparked by complaints by workers at the state-owned airline, the labour arm of the United Nations ruled it discriminated against women by including in employment contracts a clause stating: “The company reserves the right to automatically terminate your contract as a flying cabin crew member should you become pregnant.” The ILO said on Tuesday the contract breaches its 57-year-old convention against discrimination at work, which has been ratified by 172 countries. It has also demanded the Doha-based airline review a ban on female cabin crew being dropped off or picked up from work by men other than their brother, father or husband, which Qatar Airways insisted was “a cultural norm”...Asked to respond to the ILO’s findings, Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, accused the organisation of having a “vendetta” against both Qatar and its national airline. “I don’t give a damn about the ILO – I am there to run a successful airline,” he told Reuters in Paris. “This is evidence of a vendetta they have against Qatar Airways and my country. My country has responded to the ILO accusations in a very robust way. We clarified the clauses in our contract”...