Air France’s female flight attendants will be allowed to refuse to work the company’s new route to Iran, the company has announced.
Unions for the airline’s cabin crew held talks with management after several female crew members opposed an order to wear a headscarf in Iran.
The company will introduce an exception so that employees who don’t want to work on the route will be reassigned on other destinations with no sanctions.
A note sent to female cabin crew members requires them to wear a headscarf on their arrival in Tehran. They must also wear the uniform’s long-sleeved jacket and trousers rather than a knee-length dress.
The unions, however, wanted the Tehran flights to be staffed on a voluntary basis and an agreement that any staff who refused to fly to Iran because of the headscarf rule would not have their pay deducted.
Air France said in a statement on Monday: “Therefore, to ensure this fundamental principle governing the profession of crew member guarantees the respect of the personal values of each Air France female crew member, when a stewardess or female pilot is assigned to a flight to Tehran, Air France will offer them the possibility to choose not to fly to Tehran and work on a different flight. They will have to inform of their decision to refuse to wear the headscarf in line with a specific procedure beforehand.”
Air France plans to fly to Tehran three times a week from April 17. It suspended flights to Iran in 2008.
Based in part on wire reports
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