The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday pledged to hold a meeting with airline executives in three months on allowing gender-neutral uniforms for flight attendants after a legislative committee demanded the change and froze part of the agency’s budget.
The agency faced a barrage of questions about the issue from the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which was reviewing its budget for the next fiscal year.
Earlier this year, 13 EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) flight attendants filed a labor complaint against the airline for restricting female flight attendants to wearing skirts, along with other gender-specific discriminatory practices. In August, they petitioned the National Human Rights Commission for a change in the dress code.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, the Taoyuan City Government’s gender equality committee in September ruled in favor of the airline.
Many international airlines have changed their policies to add trousers to the uniforms of female flight attendants, but most Taiwanese airlines still require female cabin crew to wear skirts and high-heeled shoes, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Su-yeuh (陳素月) said.
The dress code is incongruous with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, she said, adding that the CAA should ensure that Taiwanese airlines adhere to the international treaty.
In 2013, South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission ruled that Asiana Airlines’ policy of requiring all female employees to wear skirts was a practice of gender discrimination, New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
“While it is very common to see female flight attendants at European airlines wear pants, [most] Taiwanese airlines seem very backward as they continue to require women to wear skirts and makeup,” Chiu said. “Taiwan recognizes same-sex marriage and is generally viewed by international community as a country that values gender equality. We should be equally progressive in this respect.”
DPP Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) said that wearing a tight skirt could make it difficult for female flight attendants to quickly respond in emergency situations.
The CAA should do more than simply ask airlines to provide a diverse choice of uniforms and demand a timeline on when they would make changes, Ho said.
Lawmakers passed a motion to freeze 10 percent of the budget allocated to “general administrative expenditure” — about NT$50 million (US$1.55 million) — until the CAA submits a written report on how airlines would adjust their corporate policies in accordance with the UN convention.
They also froze NT$500,000 in the Civil Aviation Operation Fund until the agency submits another report in two months on how dress codes would be listed as an item in the gender equality evaluation of airlines.
CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said that the agency would meet with airline executives in three months to discuss possible options.
“There is no regulation that requires flight attendants to wear skirts or trousers, and airlines design their uniforms based on their corporate policies and whether the uniforms facilitate the work of flight attendants aboard. So far, only female flight attendants of low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan wear trousers as uniforms,” Lin said.
“Airlines are not against the idea of allowing employees to vote for diverse uniform designs, but designing a new uniform takes time,” he said.
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