New 'too fat to fly' rules introduced for Indian cabin crew, threatening overweight staff with suspension

Airline staff in India have slammed new rules which state they can be suspended from work for being overweight.

New guidelines were issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCO) stating that crew members could be declared 'unfit' and removed from service if they did not adhere to a 'normal' body mass index (BMI).

Cabin crew have declared the rules 'crazy' and 'discriminatory' and said they would impact around 600 workers, mainly working for airline Air India.

Slammed: Cabin crew have criticised the new weight rule and said up to 600 people would be affected

The DGCA placed a statement on its website, saying that cabin crew members whose weight fell outside of normal parameters according to BMI (a measure of weight relative to mass and height) could be declared 'unfit' and suspended from servic

It claimed that the new rules were to increase passenger safety and crew who were not 'fit and healthy' were less able to carry out their duties in the event of an emergency. 

But a senior official from the All India Cabin Crew Association said: 'The guidelines are arbitrary and discriminatory. They just can't wake up one fine morning and make some crazy rules citing flimsy reasons.

'Air India's cabin crew has had a perfect safety record with the way we have been all along. Do they mean to say that all emergencies till now were handled by unfit crew?'

New rules: Indian airline staff will need regular health checkups and can be suspended for having an unhealthy BMI

                           Restrictions: Cabin crew have hit back at the new rules as discriminatory

The DGCO wants regular check-ups for cabin crew, who can then be declared fit, temporarily unfit or permanently unfit to fly.

A 'normal' BMI for men measures between 18 and 25, according to health professionals, while 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight and 30-plus is branded obese

.

Women should be between 18 and 22 to be declared 'normal', while anything up to 27 is considered overweight and above that, obese.

However, some recent research has branded BMI measurements as 'inaccurate and misleading', stating that it is not the best way to assess if a person is healthy or not.

It's not the first time an airline has restricted the weight of cabin crew.

In 2011, Thai Airways said it would 'demote' overweight staff as they had to be agile enough to evacuate passengers within 90 seconds in case of an accident.

Those who didn't have a healthy BMI would be placed on domestic flights and if they failed to lose weight in a year would be further 'demoted' to ground staff.

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2629203/New-fat-fly-rules-introduced-Indian-cabin-crew.html