Air India has been stung by a court in Calcutta which ruled that it must rehire a cabin crew member whom it had sacked for being too fat.
Neepa Dhar was dumped by the airline ten years ago after medication she was taking for “high altitude anxiety syndrome” made her put on weight.
The court said the airline must pay all the flight attendant’s earnings since her dismissal date in 2001 and give her a job on the ground.
Other women who have been dismissed by the carrier for the same reason have failed in the past to make a claim against Air India having fallen foul of clauses in their employment contracts.
Bizarrely, just a few days before the ruling, the airline actually asked ten crew that it had sacked last year for being too fat to come back to work after the carrier experienced a cabin crew shortage.
by Dinah Hatch
