Malaysian Airlines Hostess Loses Claim Over Sacking For Being A Pound Overweight

A Malaysian flight attendant who served passengers for 25 years was reportedly fired for being just one pound over an airline’s required weight guidelines.

Ina Meliesa Hassim went over regulated weight when she took to the scales and weighed in at 133lbs, just one pound more  than the Malaysia Airlines cut off weight of 132lbs.

At 5ft 2in, Ms Hassim weighed 9st 7lbs and her contract with the airline was terminated in 2017.

Hassim took the case to tribunal in Malaysia and on February 12 the Industrial Court of Malaysia ruled in favour of the airline and Ms Hassim lost her case for unfair dismissal under Malaysian unemployment law.

Malaysia Airlines claimed the weight of cabin crew was most importance in order to keep its passengers safe.

In order to maintain its image as a premium airline, Malaysia Airlines put in place weight management rules for crew members back in 2015.

It was reported that Ms Hassim had been given 18 months to lose the weight in order to get her down to the airline’s goal.

As part of this Ms Hassim was expected to attend regular weight checks with a health professional, the airline however, claims she failed to attend several of these checks.

Ms Hassim’s lawyers claimed that such weight requirements were unjust and were not regulated by other competitors such as British Airways and Lufthansa.

Despite all this the air hostess still lost her case in Malaysia for being a simple pound over weight.