Qantas Should Let Flight Attendants Go Makeup-Free and Ditch High Heels, Union Demands

One of the largest unions in Australia has called on flag carrier Qantas to shake up its uniform and grooming guidelines in order to promote a “diverse and inclusive” Australia.

The Sydney-based airline currently demands female flight attendants to wear makeup and high heels, while male cabin crew are banned from wearing makeup or growing beards. Crew members are required to wear a watch while on duty but women can’t wear a watch with a large face.

The rules are contained within the airline’s internal grooming bible known as ‘Style on Q’. The guidelines haven’t been updated in years and critics claim they no longer reflect modern attitudes.

“While airline uniforms have come a long way since the age of miniskirts and towering heels, there’s still a long way to go,” wrote Emiline Gaske, assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union in an open letter to Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.

Joyce is openly gay and is one of the most high-profile LGBTQ+ business leaders in the world. He has appointed himself as a ‘champion of change’ and has been urged to personally rethink the airline’s grooming guidelines.

Amongst ideas put forward by the union is to simply remove the requirement for female uniform-wearing employees to wear makeup. At the same time, Qantas has been urged to allow all employees, regardless of gender, to wear makeup if they wish.

Qantas should also drop high-heel requirements for workers who wear a skirt or dress, while the airline should also consider whether it’s necessary for employees to wear hosiery.

At present, only crew members who identify as female are permitted to wear a skirt, dress or high-heels but the ASU believes Qantas should remove gender-based uniform requirements and allow staff to pick and mix uniform items from the whole range.

Employees would also be allowed to wear beards under the changes proposed by the ASU and Qantas has been urged to allow workers to display their preferred pronouns on their name badges.

In 2019, Virgin Atlantic dropped makeup rules for female employees while also allowing male workers to wear makeup for the first time. British Airways has been urged to consign “expectations of makeup, heel length and buttoned-up jackets” to the history books but while a revamped grooming policy is in the works it is yet to be revealed.

New Icelandic airline Play allows cabin crew to select uniform items from the entire range regardless of gender but Alaska Airlines is being sued by one of its flight attendants because it won’t let workers pick and mix uniform items restricted to either male or female workers.