Woman wins €5,000 from airline

A WOMAN has been awarded €5,000 after she complained that Aer Lingus discriminated against her due to her age when she applied for a job as an air hostess.

The company was also ordered by the Equality Tribunal to re-interview the experienced cabin crew member within 12 weeks of the judgement.

The woman was one of 1,595 applicants seeking 150 jobs advertised by Aer Lingus in July 2000. She claimed her age, 53, was the reason she was turned down.

The tribunal found that the questions she was asked at a job interview on July 18, were biased regarding her age. But Aer Lingus didn’t breech the Equality Act by not offering her the position.

The interviewers wanted to know how she would cope with younger people being in charge. They also asked how she would feel about starting in a junior position given her age.

The woman found the questions unnerving and she felt there was too much attention on her age.

The woman had more than nine years experience as a flight attendant with Royal Jordanian

Airlines, first as a junior cabin attendant and then as a senior cabin attendant.

After making a number of complaints to the recruitment services manager, she was allegedly told the company didn’t hire cabin crew over 45 in the not too distant past, because it was bad for its image. She was then informed that she was too experienced for the job.

The company’s chief executive also wrote to her. He said: “If we were recruiting at a higher level we would certainly consider your application. I must stress that this is the sole reason that your application was turned down.”

The chief executive said Aer Lingus would not knowingly discriminate on age grounds and three candidates over 50 years of age were offered jobs.

In another case the tribunal ruled that Supermacs in Loughrea, Co Galway, discriminated against Margaret and Bridget Ward.

The Wards claimed that one of them was removed from the Supermacs’ toilets on May 6, 2001, when they were in the fast food outlet to purchase food.

They were also allegedly refused a refund for food they bought and had to return. The Wards claimed they were treated in this manner because they were Travellers.

Supermacs was ordered to provide the Wards with20 worth of free meals every day for a month.