QANTAS accused of treating male nurse like "kiddie fiddler"

[Blackadder]

And now the turn for QF to be drawn into the male discrimination saga

Nurse 'humiliated' by Qantas policy

nurse was made to feel like he had a sign that read "kiddie fiddler" over his head after he was moved away from a young girl on a Qantas flight, he said.
Daniel McLuskie said he had a similar experience to a firefighter on a Virgin Australia flight when he was made to switch seats with a woman because he was sitting next to a unaccompanied child.
Qantas has defended its policy, saying it is consistent with other airlines around the world and reflects parents' concerns.
Mr McLuskie, 31, is a senior nurse at the local health district in Wagga Wagga and was flying from the city to Sydney in June when he said he was humiliated by the cabin crew.
He was seated in the second last row of the flight next to a girl he estimated to be about 10 years old.
After the safety demonstration, a flight attendant asked a woman on the opposite side of the aisle to swap seats with Mr McLuskie.
After the plane was in the air and the meals had been served, Mr McLuskie said he went to the back of the flight to ask why he had been moved and was told it was the policy of Qantas not to have men sit next to unaccompanied children.

 

[medhead]

I see both the virgin and qantas Facebook pages are infected with this type of nonsense. As well as people banging on about the cost to fly to mining towns in WA.

BORING!


Sent from the Throne

 

[SeatBackForward]

I see both the virgin and qantas Facebook pages are infected with this type of nonsense. As well as people banging on about the cost to fly to mining towns in WA.

BORING!


Sent from the Throne

Somewhere in there, is a joke about unaccompanied miners.

 

[Blackadder]

It is blatant sex discrimination imho, but hey we are males we are just meant to cop it on the chin and move on.
It was only a matter of time before someone went to the media with a story about this happening on QF, still to come to stories from Jetstar,Tiger,Rex...

 

[anat0l]

Not again.

I suppose social media on Qantas is going berserk, too. Ah well.


I suppose Qantas didn't change its policy per se when it was last in similar boiling waters.

 

[medhead]

Sorry but I get the gender/sex related aspect of the issue but I fail the see the discrimination. No one is prevented from flying under these types of policies because of their sex. They are still allowed to fly on the aircraft of their choice. As the UMs are normally seated at the rear of the aircraft then the person will not be disadvantaged in their new seat. It will be of equivalent or better standard (depending on subjective criteria).


Sent from the Throne

 

[anat0l]

I must add that this situation seems like a different form of "sensationalism" compared to the other article.

It is the same "ground staff etc. stuffed up the seat allocation so FAs have to fix it and bear the brunt" stuff up, but this time the headline mentions someone being labelled a "kiddie fiddler". If that actually was uttered by a QF staffer, then they are in huge trouble. If it was merely the nurse saying that he felt like that, then I'm not sure whether that improves his case.

 

[harvyk]

Sorry but I get the gender/sex related aspect of the issue but I fail the see the discrimination. No one is prevented from flying under these types of policies because of their sex. They are still allowed to fly on the aircraft of their choice. As the UMs are normally seated at the rear of the aircraft then the person will not be disadvantaged in their new seat. It will be of equivalent or better standard (depending on subjective criteria).
Sent from the Throne

Yawn, as has been argued and generally agreed upon in the other thread, the discrimination part come from the fact that the person was given the direction based solely on the fact he was a male, if they where female there would have been no direction given.

What is in question is if this type of discrimination is actually allowed, or if it's illegal but tolerated by society for child safety reasons, or illegal and not tolerated by society.

 

[Blackadder]

I must add that this situation seems like a different form of "sensationalism" compared to the other article.

It is the same "ground staff etc. stuffed up the seat allocation so FAs have to fix it and bear the brunt" stuff up, but this time the headline mentions someone being labelled a "kiddie fiddler". If that actually was uttered by a QF staffer, then they are in huge trouble. If it was merely the nurse saying that he felt like that, then I'm not sure whether that improves his case.

AFAIK it was the nurse saying he felt like that.

 

[medhead]

Yawn, as has been argued and generally agreed upon in the other thread, the discrimination part come from the fact that the person was given the direction based solely on the fact he was a male, if they where female there would have been no direction given.

What is in question is if this type of discrimination is actually allowed, or if it's illegal but tolerated by society for child safety reasons, or illegal and not tolerated by society.

The other thread also quoted a definition of discrimination that was more or less ignored. Whatever prejudicial behaviour is involved the point remains that it does not restrict the opportunities available to men in getting the flight of their choice and it doesn't exclude them from flying.


Sent from the Throne

 

[samh004]

So the bottom line is, if you're male, sit as far forward as you can, because the back of the bus is reserved for UM's and females.

Hey, it's not my policy!




 

[eastwest101]

This and the previous DJ related thread were both interesting reading, from a legal standpoint, from a safety risk/management point of view and as a more general society issue.

I think a lot of the strong opinions held is due to the implication that is implicit but not spelled out in such airline policies that really rankles the law abiding majority.

I just thought I'd add that Rex has a similar policy to DJ and QF and have only seen it enforced once - where I saw a male Pax was re-issued a boarding pass at the gate, with the explanation that their original seat was next to an UM. They didn't seem too concerned about it. I haven't seen someone moved by a FA yet as my sample size of Rex flights may not be large enough but it wouldn't surprise me to hear that this could have potentially have happened with Rex as well.

 

[harvyk]

So the bottom line is, if you're male, sit as far forward as you can, because the back of the bus is reserved for UM's and females.

Hey, it's not my policy!



So by your logic and reasoning, all adult male pax must fly F class... Now it wouldn't be fair to charge them any more than any other gender or aged pax, so if we extrapolate your theory out to it's full conclusion, it all adult male pax must fly F class (or J if F is already full), and can only be charge no more than a discount Y ticket in price...

I like your thinking...

 

[casanovawa]

I don't get to choose (or demand) a male or female teacher for my child at school or a causcasion only or a straight teacher only or anything else, i don't get to choose lots of things based on a gender or other preference basis because all society is expected to suck it up and the women and civil rights, and other groups, would go on the war path if i started trying to exercise a particular preferential right (and not indicating that any of these are my preference)... Does anyone have any case law of when the last child was molested on a flight and how many have occurred in the 100 or so years of flight??? After all i thought the basis to discriminate or embarrass customers at least had to be based on some sort of risk assessment/analysis...

These clowns, if they are going to discriminate/embarass people, should at least try and do it as invisibly as possible, maybe have one interior row of seats blocked off up to the last minute as UM seats and the computer system automaticallly doesn't make them available if logged in or trying to book seats as a male and just grey them out, i wouldn't even be given the choice of selecting a seat in that row of 4 or however many statistically seats are usually required for UMs on a given flight...

 

[casanovawa]

And although i personally have no problem being forced to sit in F/J if offered at the same price as Y, there is no more reason why i as a male should be forced to sit towards the front of the plane than there was for blacks to be allocated to the back of the bus in the South of the USA prior to the 1960's... I pay my fare, i don't violate children and should pretty much be allowed to sit wherever i choose, whenever i choose unless someone can show me a definite reason not to (which probably doesn't include the preference of some adult who can't even be bothered to get on the plane with their own kid and entrust their safety to strangers)...

 

[drron]

In the Virgin thread I did give a link to an article from the States.They could only find 10 cases of child molestation on planes over 20 years.All the perpetrators were male.however most occurred on overnight flights and in most cases the perpetrator moved to be next to the UM.
It was on QF that i placated a ~3 year old by reading to him-after getting his mother's permission.The FA made a comment on deplaning about wishing she had someone like me on each flight.About 2 flights later instead of being in my preselected ~12C I ended up in 26E surrounded by UMs as I have previously posted.
Moral-dont be kind to kids.:shock:

 

[medhead]

.About 2 flights later instead of being in my preselected ~12C I ended up in 26E surrounded by UMs as I have previously posted.
Moral-dont be kind to kids.:shock:

now that's discrimination!


Sent from the Throne

 

[AVC]

 

[harvyk]

In the Virgin thread I did give a link to an article from the States.They could only find 10 cases of child molestation on planes over 20 years.All the perpetrators were male.however most occurred on overnight flights and in most cases the perpetrator moved to be next to the UM.

Which would make sense. It's hardly logical to do such a terrible act when the airline knows for sure your name, address, phone number and most importantly has you trapped for many hours with more than enough time to arrange a little meeting on the ground between yourself and the local plod on arrival. Those people are sick, but often they are not stupid.

 

[moa999]

And seemingly this guy was just asked to move... no reason given.. much better than the DJ treatment,
although the fact that this isnt done at the gate is just stoopid.