Flight Attendant Loses Discrimination Suit Against Russia’s Aeroflot

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A Russian court has rejected a lawsuit filed by an Aeroflot flight attendant who accused the national airline of discrimination based on body size.

Moscow’s Tushino District Court said on April 18 that there were “no grounds” to rule in favor of the plaintiff, Irina Iyerusalimskaya.

Iyerusalimskaya was seeking to force Aeroflot to to drop what she said were rules for the weight, height, and clothing size of flight attendants, as well as more than 1 million rubles ($18,000) in compensation for docked pay and moral damages.

She was one of several Aeroflot flight attendants who claimed in February that they were being barred from working on international flights — and thus from higher pay — because of their physical attributes.

They jokingly dubbed themselves STS — abbreviated Russian for “old, fat, and ugly.”

Aeroflot has denied it discriminates.

A different Moscow court is expected to hear a lawsuit by another flight attendant, Yevgenia Magurina.

Source: rferl.org