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- Some Qantas Airways pilots made sexist remarks about female colleagues in an online chatroom.
- One said women "run their breeding program" and still get picked for management roles over men.
- Qantas told Australian media the comments were "completely unacceptable."
Pilots at Australian national airline Qantas made disparaging, sexist comments about female colleagues and the company's CEO Vanessa Hudson in an online forum, the Herald Sun reported Tuesday.
The Herald Sun discovered a chatroom containing dozens of Qantas employees, which it reported was moderated by a Qantas captain. The forum hosted misogynistic comments and remarks dating back as far as 2018, the outlet reported.
In one post from 2019, a contributor complained about "a rapid influx of female pilots of a certain age group spawning offspring and then wanting flexible work arrangements," according to images posted by the Herald Sun.
Another member of the forum commented that women have "much more advantage" than men in the workplace.
"Women pilots have a huge advantage," he wrote. "They can go off, run their breeding program or get a cushy job in the office at twice the pay of the other full time office staff whilst chest feeding. Have their kids. Keep their seniority number. Come back and do their command. Be chosen for management roles over a dude."
This post was removed and reported to the airline's human resources department, per the Herald Sun.
One recent comment targeted Hudson after the company announced it's offering pilot scholarships for 50 female students.
"Interesting the day we get a female CEO announced is the day we get advised of this overt discrimination," he wrote.
Qantas confirmed to Insider that the social media forum is no longer supported by the airline and that two of the pilots no longer work for them. A third is under investigation and is not currently flying.
In a statement to Insider Qantas' chief pilot Dick Tobiano said: "These comments are completely unacceptable. They're offensive, don't reflect our values, and have no place here or in any other workplace."
He added: "We have many talented female pilots at Qantas and we want to encourage a lot more of them. Aviation hasn't been good at that historically and clearly, some outdated thinking still exists in some pockets."
In 2022, a female Qantas pilot, Davida Foreshaw sued the airline for discrimination and sexual harassment, saying she was told she would do "a lot better" at work if she wore a push-up bra and dyed her hair blonde.
Foreshaw said she also received a poor performance review after rejecting sexual advances from an airline captain.