ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701060087
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
Delta Air Lines did nothing illegal when it refused to hire 10 overweight flight attendants, a divided state appeals court has ruled.
The State Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that ``employers are entitled to impose rules and regulations governing the appearance of their employees.''
The justices noted state courts have held obesity is a disability, which cannot be used to deny a person a job, but said there is more than a semantic difference between ``obesity'' and ``overweight.''
Justice Peter Tom, writing for the majority, said the 10 flight attendants and pursers did not show they ``are medically incapable of meeting Delta's weight requirements due to an underlying medical problem.''
The 10 had claimed Delta used weight charts to set grooming standards to disguise discrimination. on the basis of sex, age and disability.
All were employees of Pan American Airways before it went bankrupt. In 1991, Delta bought parts of the airline and agreed to hire 6,000 Pan Am workers based on seniority, language proficiency, personal interviews and meeting weight requirements.
The 10, all of whom had at least 14 years experience, claimed Delta rejected them solely because they did not meet the weight guidelines.
Justice Angela Mazzarelli dissented, writing, ``Delta's weight charts were, as the record bears out, nothing more than a pretext for age and sex discrimination.'' She called the charts ``arbitrary'' and said they were based on ``subjective views of how much women should weigh in relation to men.''
-Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB