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SkyWest Airlines worker put on leave after reporting sexual harassment, feds say

A SkyWest Airlines worker was placed on an “indefinite administrative leave” after reporting sexual harassment at work, eventually prompting her to resign, according to federal authorities.

Now more than two years later, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing SkyWest airlines in federal court. The EEOC alleges the Utah-based airline “violated federal law by subjecting a female parts clerk to sexual harassment,” according to a news release.

In the lawsuit filed Aug. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, authorities say a female employee worked in several roles starting in January 2007. It wasn’t until August 2019 that she began work as a parts clerk for SkyWest’s Dallas operation.

While working in the Parts and Maintenance Divisions, the EEOC says she was sexually harassed by her coworkers and a supervisor.

“The sexual harassment included crude sexual comments, jokes, gestures, and mimed assaults,” according to the lawsuit. “Among these were explicit comments about (her) body, speculation about what sexual positions she may enjoy, and suggestions or requests to perform demeaning sex acts.”

The maintenance supervisor also suggested she should be a prostitute, the lawsuit states. Other harassment included comments from coworkers that made light of rape and violent sex acts.

“All SkyWest employees are held to the highest standards of professionalism,” the company said in a statement to McClatchy News. “While it is our policy to not comment on pending litigation, we have zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind and have established processes in place to follow up on any reported concerns.”

On Sept. 4, 2019, federal authorities say the woman reported the “sexually harassing behaviors and comments” to her direct supervisor, the parts clerk manager.

“She felt singled out as a new employee and a young woman in a building full of men,” federal attorneys wrote. “The Parts Clerk Manager told her that any action by him in response to (her) complaint would likely put an even larger target on her back.”

She took an unpaid medical leave of absence — about five weeks long — “due to the harm to her mental health done by the pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment.”

But when she returned in December 2019, she said her coworkers continued to make crude jokes about rape. Later that month, she requested a part-time schedule because of a “salacious environment.”

The maintenance supervisor said she needed to work or apply for leave, according to the lawsuit, so she filed a report with human resources.

She was placed on administrative leave in mid-December 2019, officials said, while HR interviewed workers — some of whom confirmed there were “sexually inappropriate jokes in the workplace.” The investigation ended in February 2020, and HR recommended sexual harassment training for all workers.

Five months after being put on leave, on May 21, the woman was still on leave and had not been given an update on the investigation or her return to work. When she reached out, officials say she learned the investigation was over but she couldn’t come back until all employees completed their training.

On May 30, 2020, she “felt compelled to resign her employment ... because (SkyWest Airlines) failed to return her to work and ceased to communicate with her about any reasonably specific date that she could expect to safely return,” according to the lawsuit.

“This employee had over a decade of experience at SkyWest and before the sexual harassment had intended to retire there,” Alexa Lang, trial attorney in the EEOC’s Dallas District Office, said in a statement. “Everyone deserves to feel safe at work and no one should be pushed out of her workplace by pervasive jokes about sexual violence.”

The EEOC says it tried to reach a pre-litigation settlement with the company before filing a lawsuit. Officials request a jury trial to award back pay, compensatory damages and an order that bans SkyWest from future discriminatory treatment.

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