Flight attendants at Air India oppose a new company circular mandating Body Mass Index (BMI) and weight checks for cabin crew before reporting for flights, which ‘grooming associates’ will be required to perform. Cabin crew unions fear the checks could negatively affect crew members’ mental health just before they take on critical safety tasks.
The new weight checks were announced by Air India’s Inflight Services Department in a letter aimed at compiling uniform and grooming requirements for flight attendants. ‘Cabin crew who are well-dressed and well-groomed according to uniform standards and regulations, present a positive and professional image of the airline,’ the internal memo noted.
Dehumanizing, unions oppose it
Air India’s two unions — Air India Employees’ Union (AIEU) and All India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA) — wrote a letter to Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Vikram Dev Dutt opposing the order on the grounds that it violates DGCA rules and is dehumanizing. ‘BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A high BMI can indicate high body fatness,’ stated the website of US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Further, the AICCA letter states that the new requirement could upset cabin crew members prior to their flights. It notes, ‘This stressful BMI check during a reporting at CCMCO is bound to disturb crew’s mental preparation through giving rise to flight safety issues and pre-departure when cabin crew is required to conduct rapid review & briefings’. The agreement was signed on January 20, 2022, just days before Air India is to be handed over to the Tata group, which acquired the carrier in a competitive bidding process last year.
The order
Vasudha Chandana, Executive Director — In-flight Services, Air India, sent a message to all members of the carrier’s cabin crew on January 20. ‘Grooming associates have been assigned the task of recording observations on the BMI management/grooming/uniform turnout of cabin crew when they report for a flight or standby duty at CCMCO (Cabin Crew Movement Control Office),’ she noted.
According to her, these observations must be compiled and sent to her office. It was noted that each cabin crew member would be observed once a quarter. The cabin supervisor of the flight, however, is responsible for making sure the crew on board are well-dressed and follow uniform regulations, she said. According to her, cabin supervisors must always set an example and ensure cabin crew compliance at all times. According to her, any non-compliance by a crew member must be noted in the cabin supervisor’s report.
Only physicians can check BMI
As per the DGCA’s rules, BMI checks can only be done by medical practitioners, the aforementioned unions said in a letter to the CMD. In addition to violating DGCA rules, the unions said that non-medical grooming associates conducting such BMI checks at airports violated ‘settled service conditions and court orders’.
As the unions noted, we have no objection to the BMI checks that employees are subjected to for more than 15 years now, but they should be conducted by medical doctors in the privacy of an Air India clinic, as has been the case so far. According to Air India’s cabin crew, this weighing scale check at airports dehumanizes and denigrates them in addition to violating their working conditions.
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