| December 15, 2007 | Saturday | Zilhaj 4, 1428 |
A question of interpretation and emphasis
SASHAYING down the aisles, their uniforms crisp, hair impeccable and make-up perfect, air stewardesses are an essential feature of any flight. Apparently calm and in control, it is to them that we look for our in-flight needs, food, drinks and blankets, and towards them we turn for guidance in case of air turbulence or bad weather. Recently, the ranks of flight attendants have been swelled by male stewards, equally well turned-out and as comfortable serving passengers who can often be quite demanding.
In Pakistan, this is a field of limited opportunities. There are only three locally-based airlines and the largest — the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines — has a steward staff strength of approximately 2,200, 51 per cent men and 49 per cent women. The other two privately-owned airlines have only female attendants but employ relatively insignificant numbers, no more than about 160 each.
Under the cool exterior that is the professional face of this field, however, are simmering potential issues including those of gender biases, appearance and societal attitudes.
Once considered a profession for women, airlines are now hiring an increasing number of male stewards. They reason, they claim, is that women do not perform as well as men and also take too many days off once they get married.
“Men have proved themselves more efficient in terms of their work since they put in more effort and take fewer days off,” argued Zulfiqar Z Mirza, the general manager for Pakistan International Airlines’ flight services. “Women, quite apart from one year’s maternity leave, take almost years off at a stretch.” He also complained that women quit the job once they get married.”
An air stewardess contacted by Dawn, however, begged to differ. “There may be a few women who take such liberties but it’s unfair to generalise so widely,” she said in displeased tones. “Furthermore, when someone avails of such long-leave, it is important to remember that it is leave without pay.”
The argument has been made that at the beginning of the history of air travel, men were not considered as flight stewards because duties such as serving food and ensuring comfort were seen as ‘female work’, or one that women were inherently better suited to. Today, ironically, some women have had to approach the courts to maintain their jobs.
In the subcontinent, for example, stewardesses with an Indian airline hit the headlines when they filed a case against employers who had grounded them on the basis of their being overweight. While the court ruled against them, the Supreme Court of Pakistan recently ruled in favour of stewardesses who had filed a case against PIA for arbitrarily reducing the retirement age from 45 years to 35. The women who had been grounded by the airline are now back at work.
Air stewards, or cabin crew, as they are often called, go through a strict selection procedure before being allowed to take to the skies. “Their skin quality, height and weight are noted in the first interview session,” said PIA’s Zulfiqar Mirza. “We check whether they have hair on their hands and arms and if they do, they are not selected. The minimum required height is 5 feet, 6 inches for men and 5 feet, 2 inches for women, with proportionate weight.”
If selected in the first interview, the hopefuls take a grooming test. Here, men and women present themselves in a manner, both physical and behavioural, befitting the job while women’s make-up skills are also checked. Once this test is cleared, the candidates’ general knowledge is tested in written and oral tests.
The selected candidates attend an intensive three to four week training course which is organised by the airline since there are currently no institutes in Pakistan offering training courses for flight attendants. During this period, the selected candidates are trained to handle emergency situations such as evacuation and hijacking. They are also given basic training in first aid and are taught to deal with problematic passengers.
“We have dropped the required level of education from a graduate degree to an intermediate degree and the age barrier has also shifted upwards, meaning that a candidate must be a minimum of 19 years old and a maximum of 24,” said Mr Mirza.
He informed Dawn that this year, PIA had vacancies for 150 female cabin crew-members but even after two induction drives, only 70 seats were filled. “In particular, women with good qualifications opt for other jobs since there are so many career options available to them,” he pointed out.
On the face of it, the work of an airline steward holds charms for both men and women: travel, glamour and literally flying high. However, the downside lies in difficult or downright rude passengers, a situation where it is often the women who suffer more harassment.
“On domestic flights in particular, passengers ogle us and consider the stewardesses as people who are meant to entertain them, not ensure their safety,” said a seasoned air stewardess. “They forget that our basic job is to ensure the passengers’ safety not merely serve refreshments. The politicians are the worst of the lot,” she added. “They think they own the plane and keep calling the stewardesses just to seek attention.”
Being a state-owned airline, PIA follows the quota system in terms of employment but the other airlines do not have any such criteria. Interestingly, however, while PIA hires staff on a contract basis, the cabin crew manager of Airblue, Libby D’Souza, said that her airline offers a permanent job from day one. She added that cabin crew work according to the demands of the job and have no fixed working hours: they may fly one day in the morning and be asked to handle a 10-hour night flight the next.
However, this leads to its own problems, as a steward pointed out. “When we took up this career, we were told that we would be accommodated in four or five star hotels but this rarely happens when we serve on domestic flights,” he complained. “Some of the favourites do have this privilege but others get dumped in a low-profile hotel with unsatisfactory facilities.”
Another old hand at the service-in-flight life put in the complaint that the system used to be much better in the past. She attributed much of this to the unions that used to safeguard the rights of employees. According to her, the unions were banned in 1998. As for Airblue, which is a relatively recent entrant into the skies over Pakistan, Ms D’Souza said that no such union had ever existed for its employees.
While members of the airlines cabin crews face issues, domestic passengers have their own gripes. “They make you feel as though they are doing you a favour and you have no right to ask the stewards for anything,” said an annoyed frequent traveller.
WITH the ink barely dry on a new treaty designed to reform European Union institutions, the bloc’s 27 leaders on Friday gave the green light to another bout of Euro-introspection – this time by setting up a so-called “reflection group” to look at key challenges facing Europe, including further expansion, globalisation, immigration and energy security.The panel of EU thinkers will be headed by former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, who served as Spain’s premier from 1982 to 1996 and is credited with modernising post-Franco Spain. Former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Jorma Ollila, the chairman of mobile phone giant Nokia have been named vice-chairs of the panel. The group will number no more than nine people. Its exact composition will be agreed by March next year.
But that’s where agreement ends. Even as they set up the panel, EU leaders began bickering over just what they expected the group to achieve.
The focus is once again on Nicolas Sarkozy, the mercurial French president who initially demanded the setting up of the reflection group. The French leader, who is fiercely opposed to Turkish membership of the EU, does not hide his hopes that the panel will discuss future enlargement. In Brussels on Friday, he repeated again that he expected the reflection group to discuss the future borders of the EU – and say “non” to further expansion.
The French leader said such discussion was “inevitable” given the group’s mandate to “examine how the stability and prosperity of both the Union and of the wider region might best be preserved in the longer term.”
Britain and other EU states like Sweden who favour Turkish entry into the EU are adamant, however, that the mandate of the group will not include the question of Europe’s future frontiers. Instead, the focus will be on strengthening and modernising European economies, immigration, international crime, terrorism and climate change. Attention will centre on challenges during the period 2020 until 2030.
As an EU diplomat pointed out, it all boils down to a question of interpretation and emphasis. Veteran EU watchers know, however, that the confused mandate for the panel, means more angry squabbling down the road. And with the Turkish question a continuing source of controversy, the quarrels are likely to continue for a long time.
Ankara in any case is already hopping mad. Earlier this month, ceding to French pressure, EU foreign ministers, dropped any reference to the word “accession” in relation to Turkey in a key document, thereby triggering a furious reaction among the country’s political elite.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Sarkozy of acting hypocritically and insisted that Turkey was not going to abandon its decades-old quest to join the Union.
”France stands alone among all EU countries as a country against Turkey,” said Erdogan, adding: “As Turkey, we will continue our EU path with determination. If the EU says ‘yes’ to the alliance of civilizations, it has to include Turkey among its members.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said European attitudes towards Turkey were influenced by its own mood. “The less self-confident Europe is, the bigger problems it has with Turkey,” said Babacan.
Speaking against those who oppose Turkey’s membership in the EU, Alberto Navarro, Spain’s state secretary, stressed that “it would be a real barbarism to leave Turkey out of the EU.”
The controversy is not just about Turkey, however. Political correctness is also an issue. While EU leaders have been careful not to offend female citizens by calling the panel a committee of “wise men.” Several policymakers, critics say the group’s top three members are much too old to have new ideas about the future of Europe. “It’s not about age, but all three of the panel so far represent old Europe,” said Graham Watson, British MEP and leader of Europe’s Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. Some diplomats sceptical of the initiative said Mr Gonzalez, Vike-Freiberga and Ollila seemed a tad on the old side – with an average age of 64 – for a group that will peer into the EU’s future more than 20 years ahead.
The EU summit also zeroed in on another key concern: globalization. With most Europeans worryied that increasingly fierce competition from China and India is a threat to European jobs and wages, leaders said the reflection group should strive to “shape globalization in the interests of all our citizens.”
The focus would be on pressing for “increasingly open markets which should lead to reciprocal benefits” while ensuring that competition is “fair” and respects “intellectual property rights,” the final summit statement said.
Attention would be paid to ensuring that investment in research, innovation and education is strengthened as a central driver for growth and jobs and to ensure that all will benefit from the opportunities of globalisation, the statement added.