- WIA raises awareness on the challenges female cabin crew face
Women in Action (WIA) is the female arm of the Flight Attendants’ Union in Sri Lanka, whose goal is to give female cabin crew a platform to voice their opinions and issues. Speaking to WIA Co-Founder and Cabin Supervisor Tammy Warkuss on the WIA’s mission, she commented: “The WIA supports female cabin crew emotionally and gives them a platform to create an open dialogue while inspiring and motivating them.”
The WIA has been around for a long time, according to Warkuss, and has only just launched a social media presence in hopes of collaborating with other female-led groups, societies, and organisations.
Like doctors and nurses, the cabin crew falls into the category of frontliners, and are made to take risks, and deal with an element of danger. In conversation with WIA Co-Founder and flight attendant Thiruni Ratnavibushana, she stated that female cabin crew face many challenges that people don’t quite understand. “Most people assume that it is a very glamorous industry, where we dress up in saree and make up and get to go to exotic places, but it’s really not like that at all!” she explained. She added that the life of a flight attendant is very demanding; they have to work long hours while having to maintain high standards of grooming.
Challenges
Elaborating on her point, Ratnavibushana commented that the long hours cabin crew work is incredibly taxing, especially for women. Currently, because of the pandemic, many flights don’t have layovers, so they sometimes struggle with longer working hours and have to take the same flight back to the country.
All this is done while being fully equipped in a PPE suit, for hours on end. “We’re fully covered with the plastic apron and gloves and imagine being in that for long hours on certain flights,” she said.
Face masks are known to cause acne; in fact, it was such a problem that it had garnered its own term over the internet as “maskne”. Most of us are lucky enough to be able to take our masks off throughout the day, but Ratnavibushana explained that they are unable to, and the addition of a full face of makeup that is on for long periods of time also contributes further to a bad breakout of acne. Acne may not be a life-threatening illness, but in an industry where appearances are of utmost importance, it could well be what causes long-term health conditions and other skin diseases.
She further noted that this could even be unsanitary sometimes; in the case of someone being sick, it could lead to detrimental health conditions. “It’s very stressful to go to the washroom in this suit, taking it off is a hassle and then we have to sanitise all over again,” Ratnavibushana described, giving us more insight into the hard life of a flight attendant.
She added that women are heroes; “They balance their work with home life, maintain the high standards of the airline that is known for their cabin crew, and do it all with a smile.”
Effects of the pandemic
As Ratnavibushana noted, it is never easy being a cabin crew member, but the pandemic has brought on a new bout of challenges for these hard working females.
Speaking to WIA Co-Founder and flight attendant Sandrine Pereira, she shed light on the issues cabin crew who are mothers have to face, that were caused by the pandemic. “If you’re a mother, and have to fly for over 24 hours in a plane full of people that could potentially be infected, that is a big risk,” she explained, adding that social distancing is impossible, because it’s a very small and cramped space, and if you move more than two metres, you’d probably bump into another person.
Pereira also informed us that they have mothers who, after maternity leave on ground, are waiting to come back to flying but are unable to do so due to constraints on regulatory requirements stipulated by laid down health protocols. Given this situation, these women are now helpless and unable to pay off debts and loans they’ve taken. She shared that in their airline, there are 682 female cabin crew members, with 51 mothers currently placed on ground.
“Now, because of the pandemic, these mothers who were put on ground are unable to go through the training required to return as cabin crew,” she further explained.
On this note, she highlighted that the aviation industry is doing the best they can with all the restrictions and problems that they too have to face at the moment. “Our job is to maintain the face of the company; so whatever happens, we have to maintain these very high standards. Our airline is known for their hospitality and friendly smiles, and in this situation, as humans, it’s very difficult to maintain that,” she explained.
Pereira further added that they work very hard to maintain the welcoming and hospitable culture of the Sri Lankan way of life, and the fact that it requires a lot of dedication and sacrifice, especially during these troubled times, is forgotten and looked over by many, and thus their profession is shunned and misunderstood.
WIA have also carried out charity projects as well as monthly awareness campaigns in order to raise awareness for issues faced by women. As next month marks breast cancer awareness, they will be conducting a campaign on that, and hope to tackle issues such as domestic abuse, and equal rights in the coming months. They are looking to collaborate with other societies to take their campaigns public. WIA urges any other Sri Lankan female-led organisations whose aim is to create awareness, fight injustice, and form campaigns to get in touch with WIA to collaborate in the future.
