A major regional carrier that provides services for American, Delta, and United Airlines has been ordered to pay a former employee $2.17 million in compensation after a Dallas jury unanimously found that the airline had subjected her to a sexually hostile work environment.
Skywest Airlines must pay Sarah Budd $2 million in punitive damages and a further $170,000 for emotional harm following a lawsuit that was brought on her behalf by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Budd worked as a parts clerk for Skywest for more than 10 years in Dallas, and during this time, it is alleged she was subjected to vile and “extremely crude” sexual comments from multiple coworkers and at least one of her managers.
Some of the comments made towards Budd, who is a sexual assault survivor, allegedly included references that she should make money from prostitution. Male coworkers were accused of asking Budd to perform demeaning sex acts, while colleagues would make frequent jokes about rape and rape victims.
Budd became so distraught from the comments that she became physically sick and suffered “intense mental anguish.”
The jury heard how Budd initially reported her concerns to her supervisor who failed to take any action, before she went to Skywest’s employee relations department.
At that point, the airline started an investigation, but Skywest didn’t interview everyone who had been identified as a witness and failed to ask “obvious” follow-up questions.
Although Skywest did take disciplinary action against some of Budd’s coworkers involved in the harassment, the EEOC claims this was merely “superficial.”
The airline was promised to provide department-wide sexual harassment training, but when Budd retired, Skywest decided it was no longer necessary and canceled the sessions. The airline eventually conducted the training three years later and only after the EEOC started litigation proceedings.
“All Ms. Budd wanted was to be heard and to stop this from happening to other women,” commented Alexa Lang, an EEOC trial attorney following last week’s judgment.
Lang added: “We hope the verdict sends a message to SkyWest and other employers that they must take responsibility for making sure their workplaces are free from sexually hostile conduct. Everyone deserves to feel safe at work.”
Last year, Skywest was served with a lawsuit by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) over what the union described as “extraordinary violations” of labor law.
Although Skywest flight attendants are not represented by a union, AFA has taken up the case of two Skywest crew members who were allegedly sacked for exposing serious security flaws with an internal crew representative election.
Earlier this year, the Department of Labor filed a federal lawsuit against a staff association at Skywest, which is funded by the airline, in an attempt to force the association to rerun a botched election.
