Transsexual pilot wins sex bias job
case
By John Steele
A PILOT has won an industrial tribunal case that an airline sexually discriminated against her over her applications for a job because she was a transsexual.
Kristina Sheffield, 52, who was once a husband and father called Ian, brought the case against Air Foyle, which held the operating licence for the Luton-based Easyjet when she submitted an application for a pilot’s post in 1996. Miss Sheffield, from Ealing, north London, was told of the tribunal decision at the weekend. A financial settlement will be settled later.
Air Foyle had denied that, after making two job applications in 1996, she was not called for an interview because of her transsexuality. It said flaws in her character and personality lay behind the decision. Capt Michael Veal, a pilot who worked with Miss Sheffield at another airline 10 years ago, told the tribunal that she “tended to be very forceful and … flaunted her femininity which made people feel uncomfortable”.
But, in its ruling, the tribunal said Miss Sheffield, who once served with the RAF and worked as a mercenary in the Rhodesian air force, had the experience and qualifications necessary for the job.
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