British Airways (BA) told a passenger that Gatwick check-in staff were allowed to wear a Palestine Flag badge in the shape of a Black Power fist, as it was a symbol of religious faith.

A BA employee working for Gatwick Ground Services was wearing a Palestinian flag in the shape of a fist in August.  A Jewish passenger who noticed this badge was shocked and intimidated to see the staff member displaying such an aggressive symbol on her uniform.

When the passenger registered a complaint, she was told that BA staff were allowed to wear “symbols of their religious faith”.

British Airways has now apologized, and said that political symbols are not part of the uniform.

UKLFI wrote to BA to query their policy regarding political symbols, and pointed out that British Airways was likely to breach Section 29 (3) of the Equality Act 2010 (“the Act”) by allowing staff to wear blatantly political badges which would create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment at the airport for Jews or Israelis.  This would amount to harassment in relation to the provision of a service contrary to Section 29(3) of the Act.

Being Israeli or Jewish are protected characteristics of race and/or religion under section 4 of the Equality Act 2010.  BA would be liable for the conduct of its staff under Section 109 of the Act unless it had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the conduct.

UKLFI also pointed out that if BA was actually allowing the badges to be worn, BA officers could be guilty of a criminal offence of aiding contraventions under Section 112 of the Act or misinforming employees and agents under Section 110(4) of the Act.

BA has now confirmed to UKLFI that BA’s uniform policy does not permit staff to wear political symbols as part of their uniform. They have spoken to the individual concerned, and will be sending out a reminder to all Gatwick Ground Services colleagues with regard to uniform policy.

They have also apologised saying, “We are sorry to hear that one of our customers felt intimidated and offended when travelling with us. At British Airways we do not tolerate harassment of any kind and this is not the experience that we wish customers to have when travelling with us.”

A BA spokesperson has also apologised for the response sent by their Executive Club team which appeared to condone the wearing of the Palestinian flag badge.  They said that the response “unfortunately contains a number of errors. We are investigating this internally to hopefully avoid such incorrect responses being sent to our customers in the future.”

A UKLFI spokesperson commented: “We are glad that BA has clarified its uniform policy and will not be allowing staff to wear divisive political badges at work.”