PETALING JAYA, April 5 — Flight attendants were outraged over Malindo Air’s grooming check during walk-in interviews on March 11 which required applicants to strip down to their bras.

Calling the fiasco “ridiculous and disgusting”, they said they had never come across such a screening procedure.

Malaysia Airlines cabin crew staff Sharifah Muhazlisa Syed Mohd Bakar, 42, was surprised when told candidates were asked to expose their chests, lift their skirts, fold up their pants or remove their pantyhose.

Sharifah said she was never asked to remove her clothes when she first joined the airlines in 1996.

“Those with long sleeves were asked to roll up their sleeves to check for tattoos and scars. That’s it,” she said.

“The official from the airlines should know better.”

Leading stewardess and trainer for the same airline Suganthi Namasivayam, 45, said no one should be asked to strip at a job interview.

A 28-year-old flight attendant with AirAsia, who requested anonymity, said it was unacceptable to ask female flight attendants to remove their clothes to check their skin.

“My current employee asked if I had any tattoos or scars but I was never asked to take my clothes off,” he said.

“The airline (AirAsia) will not have a problem with stewards or stewardess having tattoos or scars as long as they were covered by the uniform.”

He described the move of asking air hostess hopefuls to remove their tops as “unacceptable”.

“This is the 21st century. No organisation should be asking their employees to remove their clothes. It is extremely derogatory.”

A Singapore Airlines flight attendant, who declined to be named, was shocked and angry when told of the incident.

“That is crazy! I do not understand why they would have to do that. Those girls are not there to show off their bodies,” she said.

She said such job interviews were like those of any other careers and the applications should be treated with respect and dignity.

A Malindo advertisement for its March 11 walk-in interview posted on its Facebook on March 3.