American Airlines' Southern California supervisors are attempting to push older, better-paid female flight attendants into retirement by subjectively enforcing a 2-year-old company policy requiring weight checks for those returning from unpaid leaves, federal anti-discrimination attorneys claimed Monday.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said American--the last airline in the United States with inflexible weight rules for flight attendants--is violating federal sex and age discrimination laws.
A broader EEOC lawsuit against American that makes similar claims on behalf of active flight attendants is scheduled to go to trial next year in Dallas.
At issue in both lawsuits is the airline's refusal to raise its weight limits to account for age. Government attorneys note that both United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the nation's second- and third-largest carriers behind American, make such allowances and that some airlines have no weight limits at all. Most airlines that set weight limits, including American, use the 1959 Metropolitan Life Insurance tables, which give weight according to height.
At United, a 5-foot-5 flight attendant can weigh 137 pounds at age 25 and up to 146 at age 55. At American, the standard for the same woman is 129 pounds, regardless of age.
Ralph D. Fertig, supervising trial attorney in the EEOC's Los Angeles office, said the new lawsuit was filed in response to a policy American adopted in 1988 that required flight attendants returning from leave to have their weight formally checked, as new employees are required to do.
Normally, active American flight attendants are subjected to weight checks only if a supervisor suspects that they have become too heavy, Fertig said. Unlike those returning from leave, the active attendants are permitted to keep flying while they lose weight.
Fertig, two American flight attendants in their 40s and another attendant who was fired for being too heavy told reporters at a news conference Monday that they believe the policy on flight attendants returning from leave is not invoked uniformly and is targeted at older women. Because American and many other airlines began using two-tier wage systems in the 1980s, older employees enjoy substantially higher salaries and benefits.
