Air France accused for racial profiling of flight attendants
Air France has been accused of “ethnic-based personnel files” and perpetrating “racial discrimination in the allocation of flights” by French anti-discrimination association SOS Racisme. The airline allegedly used ethnic criteria to categorize flight staff in order to “meet the demands of some commercial passengers”. However, Air France has denied the charges since these ethnic profiles are an instrument to promote equality and Diversity within the company. “This is a tool for enhancing equity and diversity to accommodate the crews of these often prestigious flights,” stated the company, by referring to flights which are chartered for special occasions (celebrities, companies, politicians). “We have a very diverse staff. We want to show this on special flights where it was always the same people who worked there before,” said a spokesman, who said that 1,000 employees out of about 16,000 had been profiled ethnically. In order to ethnically profile the flight attendants, the company uses a seven-point criteria: African, Caribbean, Asian, Eurasian, Indian, Mediterranean or Western. The company said that it does this to best meet customer demands, “thus, an Indian private charter requested and obtained an Indian crew to serve on a Paris-Cayenne flight,” said the CFDT labor official. Cyril Jouan, national secretary of an Air France labor union comments that his organization has questioned these procedures several times: “We have been wondering over these economic incentives and their limitations,” said Jouan, who called for “clear and convincing answers” from the company and “the withdrawal of the ethnic-based profiling criteria.” Meanwhile Air France defended the legitimacy of its actions by referring to the fact that the files are kept with the consent of the employee.
