During my working life, I’ve taken on a variety of challenges, including those of being a political agent, an archaeologist and a woodcutter. For the most part, though, I’ve been engaged with the media – radio, television and print – or as a public relations flack. In the course of the latter, I’ve been involved with many campaigns designed to damage the image of an individual, a company or a government. My advice, when on the defensive side, has generally been that it’s a good idea to stick to the truth. If you haven’t got a good and valid story to tell, it’s better to shut up. If your defence to an attack is, however, that critics are talking a load of cobblers, then go for them. Challenge them, quick and hard.
I was, therefore, delighted this week to see that Etihad Airways has invited its critics from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants in the United States to come and pay a visit.
APFA recently wrote an open letter to Nicole Kidman, the public face of Etihad’s latest advertising campaign, asking her to break her connection with the airline, “because the UAE and its airlines are well known in our industry, for their discriminatory labour practices and deplorable treatment of female employees”.
I won’t repeat Etihad’s answer to APFA here – that’s received plenty of coverage. Ever since I read a horrendous story last year about how another Gulf airline, outside the UAE, was alleged to treat its employees, I have, however, tried, wherever possible, to talk to Etihad flight attendants while on long-haul flights.
It’s more pleasant standing in the galley chatting than squashed into an economy class seat, anyway, especially with a free-flowing supply of coffee or juice, and I’m always curious to know how people feel about their jobs.
Some flight attendants, male and female, are happy to talk, as long as I don’t get in the way when they’re busy. They’ve always seemed pretty normal people to me, but then I was once engaged to an attendant for a British airline.
The Etihad staff to whom I’ve spoken are well aware of the stories about that other Gulf-based airline. Indeed, one of those on my most recent flight, from Heathrow last Friday, had herself previously worked there and was delighted that she had moved. Etihad, they said, was a good employer and there was certainly no indication that they felt they were suffering from “deplorable treatment”. In fact, they seemed fairly happy to me. One had been an accountant back in Britain before joining the company – the salary, she said, was much better, though I guess it being on a tax-free status may have helped. The only gripe I could elicit from last Friday’s crew was that the bus that took them home sometimes took a while to arrive. So four of them were planning to share a taxi to get home quicker.
I wonder if APFA did insufficient research before writing to Nicole Kidman. Perhaps they just copied their reference to “discriminatory labour practices and deplorable treatment of female employees” from one of the other overseas organisations that seem so ready to criticise the Emirates.
There was no evidence of discrimination in terms of nationality amongst the flight attendants on my plane while the flight crew (from the front end, not the back) on another Etihad plane that landed around the same time included a woman with several stripes on her uniform.
It may be, of course, that some of Etihad’s 24,000 employees, from over 140 nationalities, have severe complaints about how they are treated, although I’ve never personally run across any. More to the point though, it says a lot for Etihad’s own confidence in its relations with its staff that they’ve publicly invited their critics to come and take a look. It will be interesting to see if the APFA take up the challenge.
Peter Hellyer is a consultant specialising in the UAE’s history and culture
