This is not discrimination...

A British Airways pilot has won a sex discrimination case because she was not allowed to work partime.

Ms Starmer, whose husband Simon is also a BA pilot, asked the airline last year if she could work 50 per cent part-time.

She was denied her request and she brought a claim for indirect sex discrimination.

But, why did the airline not allow her to work part-time?

Ms Starmer now works part-time on a 75 per cent contract and the airline said it had consistently argued that the decision not to allow her to cut her working hours in half until she completed the required amount of flying hours, was based on safety not sex discrimination.

BA said its pilots should have at least 2,000 flying hours experience - around three years of full-time flying - before they could work at 50 per cent levels.

They said that the safety threshold is applied equally whether the pilot is male or female.

Who cares about safety?