A Moscow court has thrown out the case of a group of "old, fat and ugly" flight attendants seeking to sue Russia's most popular airline for discrimination.
The group, which called itself STS - a Russian abbreviation for 'old, fat, ugly', claimed some Aeroflot flight attendants were being bumped from international flights to lesser paid domestic ones because of their looks and age, the Telegraph reports.
But the company has always denied that was the case, saying in February it complies will all Russian legislation and is an equal opportunities employer.
"This implies a categorical rejection of discrimination against workers on age, race, gender, political and religious views."
One cabin crew member claimed stewardesses were last year photographed, measured and weighed under the guise of having new uniforms made.
"When my boss looked at my photo, he said: 'Zhenya, you know, your cheeks are too big for international flights. And you have big breasts, so you should be wearing a sports bra. This is the way they explained to me the new rules," Evgeniya Magurina told a local news station.
She claimed the airline had put in new rules about how female flight attendants should look and those who didn't meet that criteria were moved off major routes.
"Everyone older than 40 or with clothing size larger than small or medium was taken off international flights."
The airline said the allegations ha "nothing to do with reality".
It said a report by Radio Liberty which first ran the story of the flight attendants was based on information from anonymous sources "and one of the 5500 airline stewardesses".
The airline said it conducted an internal investigation where "virtually all the facts [in the story] have not been confirmed".
Newshub.
