Spanish airline Iberia to end pregnancy tests as part of recruitment


Inclusive tourism Spain. Iberia Airbus A321-211 "EC-ILP" and British Airways Airbus A320-211 "G-Busk" in October 2010, before the airlines' 2011 merger. Source: Curimedia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAirbus_A321_Iberia_%26_A320_British_Airways_(5047661247).jpg

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Span­ish air­line Iber­ia is to stop requir­ing women to take a preg­nancy test as part of its recruit­ment pro­cess, it said in a state­ment on its website.

A preg­nancy test, which was a routine part of the med­ic­al exam­in­a­tion that poten­tial female recruits had to under­go, will be stopped, the air­line said.

“We will no longer include a preg­nancy test in the med­ic­al exam­in­a­tion for new hires,” said Maria Teresa Gar­cia Menén­dez, Iberi­a’s work­place health and safety officer in the statement.

“We will con­tin­ue to use all neces­sary means to ensure the safety and rights of preg­nant employ­ees, as we have always done. This is an exem­plary com­pany when it comes to hir­ing women.”

The meas­ures were put in place to ensure that women were not at risk of being assigned tasks that could endanger their preg­nancy, such as lug­gage hand­ling, the air­line said.

It said it has nev­er rejec­ted a qual­i­fied can­did­ate for employ­ment on the grounds of pregnancy.

The decision to stop the tests fol­lows a rul­ing by a region­al labour body in the Balear­ic Islands that fined Spain’s nation­al car­ri­er 25,000 euros (US$29,000) for the prac­tice which it deemed dis­crim­in­at­ory, accord­ing to reports by the Span­ish news­pa­per El Pais in English.

“Enfor­cing preg­nancy tests as part of recruit­ment has no place in 2017 and we are pleased that the prac­tice is being reversed,” said Lee Web­ster, spokes­wo­man for inter­na­tion­al char­ity Woman­kind Worldwide.

Women make up 38 per cent of the total staff at Iber­ia and child­care policies, along with reduced work­ing hours, facil­it­ate women’s access to work, the air­line said.

Iber­ia, which is owned by Inter­na­tion­al Con­sol­id­ated Air­lines Group SA (ICAG.L) has under­gone a major restruc­tur­ing since its 2011 mer­ger with Brit­ish Airways.

Source: Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion, the char­it­able arm of Thom­son Reuters.

Fea­tured image: Iber­ia Air­bus A321-211 “EC-ILP” and Brit­ish Air­ways Air­bus A320-211 “G‑Busk” in Octo­ber 2010, before the air­lines’ 2011 mer­ger. By Cur­i­me­dia, CC BY 2.0, via Wiki­me­dia.

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