Tiger Air, and airline owned by Member State A, has been asked to assess certain of its current rules on employment of their pilots and air crew (air hostesses and stewards)
a) The compulsory retirement age for pilots is 60 on ground of air security; the compulsory retirement age for air crew is 50 (after that staff can apply for carrying out ground work) on ground of customer expectations (based on customer feedback) and air security;
b) Special benefits, such as free flight tickets for air crew, are reserved for employees who are married and are not to be extended to those in a civil partnership (Member State A generally maintains a distinction between marriage and civil partnerships);
c) Pregnant air hostesses are transferred to perform ground duties (office work) on the ground that work as air crew exposed them to physical agents, such as ionising and non-ionising radiation which may cause foetal lesions. These transfers lead to the loss of the special air crew supplement;
d) The pension contributions of air hostesses are higher than those of stewards reflecting the fact that retired air hostesses live longer than retired stewards.
Advise Tiger Air as to the compatibility of these rules with EU anti-discrimination law.