Local Flights SA

September 2, 2008

South African Airways fired a woman who passed all the tests to be an air hostess and even learned to swim after she was diagnosed HIV-positive.

The 30-year-old has taken the airline to court, three years after being fired, in an attempt to get back the job she trained for as well as for back pay.

SAA maintains that no employee is fired for being HIV-positive, unlike the woman who claims, in paper before the Johannesburg Labour Court, that she lost her job three months after being diagnosed.

Medical tests are part of employment procedure and have to be submitted to an independent panel compromising military and private aviation experts. This panel then issues a medical certificate declaring the employee fit to fly.

The woman never got this clearance certificate and three months after she was diagnosed, the airline fired her as “she could not obtain the legally required medical certificate.”

In defense SAA said it was simply applying a legal regulation that staff had to be “medically fit”.

“SAA operates in a strictly regulated environment and we are bound by the legal safety requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA),”said SAA acting group corporate affairs head Sarah Uys.

“Any crew member who is not fit for flying and ill, whether it is bronchitis or any other illness, will be grounded until such time that they have been given a medical certificate,” Uys said.

According to the woman she passed all the qualifying practical and theoretical tests required by SAA and had even learned to swim for this job.

After discovering she was HIV-positive she did not fear her job was in jeopardy. Her HIV and an autoimmune disease she contracted were both under control, she claimed in court papers.

Furthermore, SAA had punted an HIV-management programme for its staff to the trainees and she had been told that HIV was not a bar to the job.

However, 10 days after she was diagnosed, the medical panel found her temporarily unfit. Three months later, SAA fired her after the panel refused to give her a medical certificate.

“I was doing everything they asked me to. It was such an ordeal. I felt so humiliated. To be HIV-positive does not mean you are incompetent,” said the woman.

Reynaud Daniels, her lawyer, said SAA was shifting the blame to the CAA, which is also defending the action.

“It is a bit of a cop-out. If the CAA regulations are unlawful, SAA as an employer must take responsibility for it. SAA is responsible to the employee,” Daniels said.

Source: www.thetimes.co.za