Qantas crew urged to mind their language
Qantas has advised staff that using words such as ‘mum’, ‘dad’, ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ might offend customers.
They have also been told to think twice about using words like ‘love, honey and darling’.
The information was included in material posted on the Qantas intranet as part of the airline’s ‘Spirit of Inclusion’ month.
It suggested that gender-specific terms such as ‘husband and wife’ could be seen to exclude same-sex couples, while addressing passengers as ‘mum and dad’ might upset single parent families.
Staff were also warned not to ‘manterrupt’ women, which is when a man talks over a female.
Contents of the message were leaked to The Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
One section apparently urged staff to ‘recognise reality’ and suggested they stop referring to the arrival of the British in Australia as a ‘settlement’ and describe it instead as ‘colonisation’, ‘occupation’ or ‘invasion’.
It explains: "Describing the arrival of the Europeans as a ‘settlement’ is a view of Australian history from the perspective of England rather than Australia."
However, former Australia prime minister Tony Abbott told 2GB Radio that he thought the pack was ‘political correctness gone too far’.
"Qantas staff are very good people… they’ve got to deal with just about every possible type of person, and they don’t need this kind of nonsense, they really don’t," he said.
The material was devised by the Diversity Council of Australia and similar information was provided to many of the council’s other 450 members.
It said: "Our WordsAtWork materials are not telling people what they can and can’t say. We are simply asking people to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and look at what they say from another perspective – and be open to changing what they have always thought is ‘normal’, respectful and appropriate to say.
"We designed the materials so that they weren’t instruction manuals but rather offered up ideas for consideration. In fact, in the guide we note that language changes and so it’s important to revisit these ideas over time to see how community standards about words at work may be changing.
"We will never get universal consensus on what words or behaviours are or are not inclusive – but that’s actually not the point, the point is to open up a respectful discussion about it."
Qantas said the material was intended to start an internal discussion ‘about how language choice can impact how inclusive (or not) a workplace is’.
The airline said it had not changed any rules or imposed any new policies or procedures.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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