Searches too invasive: female airline staff

Female staff at Perth Airport's international terminal are being intimidated and searched invasively by a security worker who used to be a man but had a sex change operation, it has been claimed.

A complaint was lodged by one employee about two months ago about the situation, which also involves the frisking of airline passengers, but no action has been taken allegedly because of concerns over violation of anti-discriminatory laws.

Yesterday, the security company involved, ISS Facility Services Australia, said it followed equal employment opportunity principles and practices and "it would not be appropriate to comment on the status of an individual employee".

Two airline employees have also approached _The West Australian _with their concerns."The pat-downs are far too invasive. I don't know what to do," one distressed employee said.

Airline employees go through security checks up to a dozen times a day. They can ask for another person to pat them down, but sometimes there is only a handful of staff, mostly men.

"Between arrivals and departures in the early hours of the morning there is often only one female on," the airline employee said. "And you don't want to a make a scene and we shouldn't be put in this position."

The employee said she felt as if she was "being targeted" by the female security person. Staff say there are now more random checks, even if they do not set off the screening alarms.

The security at Perth Airport's various terminals is handled by several different companies under guidelines from the Office of Transport Security.

Westralia Airports Corporation, lease holders of Perth Airport, said it took all customer complaints, including those from airline staff, seriously and thoroughly investigated each one.

"We have no recent, substantiated examples of a security officer behaving inappropriately," a spokeswoman said.

Before starting work at the airport, all security contract staff were required to be licensed by the WA Police, a spokeswoman for Perth Airport said. This included "providing appropriate identification and undergoing training in all security screening measures".

The spokeswoman said it was policy if a person was frisk-checked it was by someone of the same gender.

"It is important to acknowledge that security screening is a vital component of the aviation security framework. It can be intrusive and, unfortunately, this means that from time to time complaints can occur."