Emirates Airline denies banning cabin crew’s ‘ Taiwan flag’ pattern

Emirates Airline denied reports that the company had banned Taiwan staff from wearing brooches with the “Taiwan flag” pattern before it withdrew the rule over protests, saying that it had originally intended to remove all national flag- related symbols from its cabin crew’s uniforms.

An Emirates spokesperson who request anonymity told the Global Times on Wednesday that the company had plans to cancel all national flag- related symbols from its cabin crew’s uniforms, which was based on internal recommendations.

Taiwan news portal news. ebc. net. tw reported on Wednesday that an email circulated within Emirates said the com- pany was instructed by the Chinese mainland government to follow the one- China policy, which means “you must remove the ‘ Taiwan flag’ from service waistcoat and replace it with the Chinese flag… This must be followed by all Taiwan crew without exception.”

A screenshot of the email was first posted by Taiwan Net users on Tuesday on twptt. cc, a Taiwan forum.

The email had ignited protests from the Taiwan employees, and within less than 12 hours, Emirates said the reports on removing “Taiwan flag” images were false, and that the Taiwan employees will be allowed to continue to use their name tags with the “Taiwan Flag,” zaobao. com reported.

However, the spokesperson said that an internal email containing “error information” was sent to the company’s flight attendants but withdrawn on Tuesday. He added that the company plans to cancel all national flag- related marks from its cabin crew’s uniforms.