Second Suit Filed Against Leading Independent Airline for Sexual Harassment of Female Workers

Source: CCH Online

A second sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed against a leading independent airline, on behalf of a lead customer service agent in the airline's Sioux Falls station and another female agent, the EEOC announced July 11, 2008. The airline boasts that it is the largest independently held regional airline in the US, and performs flying services for US Airways and ground handling services for both United and Northwest Airlines, the EEOC noted. It has approximately 2,300 employees, operates in 70 cities throughout North America and carries about six million passengers a year.

The two women, Caroline Lescroart and Kimberly Schmidt, were subjected to harassment, and a hostile work environment based on sex by male coworkers at the Sioux Falls airport, and were retaliated against for complaining, according to the EEOC's lawsuit. Schmidt was fired for complaining about the harassment, the federal agency alleges.

The airline violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to take prompt and effective remedial action to remedy the harassment and hostile work environment, despite the several internal complaints filed by the women, according to the EEOC.

"Allowing employees to engage in conduct that creates a hostile work environment and ignoring complaints about it is damaging not only to the particular victim, but also to the work force as a whole," said John P. Rowe, district director of the EEOC's Chicago district office, which investigates complaints of employment bias is Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

"This situation in [this] case is particularly disturbing because it appears that the victims filed several internal complaints, yet the airline still failed to take corrective action," added John C. Hendrickson, regional attorney for the EEOC's Chicago district. "That kind of inaction in the face of repeated complaints creates a serious problem for an employer."

For information on anti-harassment training, or how to protect your company against potential liability, please contact Berkshire Associates Inc. at 800.882.8904 or email bai@berkshireassociates.com.