Canadian airline WestJet agrees to settle flight attendants’ sexual harassment class action

The Canadian airline WestJet has agreed to pay C$4.5m (£2.4m) to settle a decade-long sexual harassment class action lawsuit levelled by its female flight attendants, who alleged the company failed to maintain a safe workplace.

The suit followed allegations by Mandalena Lewis, a former flight attendant, that a pilot had sexually assaulted her and a colleague, but that WestJet kept the pilot flying, thereby putting other employees at risk.

A British Columbia judge on Monday approved the terms of the settlement, which were finalised on 22 June after months of negotiation. The payment will be distributed among the 3,452 flight attendants in the class action after expenses are removed, including legal fees.

WestJet agreed to hire a third-party to conduct a workplace inquiry that will examine the prevalence of harassment, the extent of underreporting and how reporting systems can be made more effective.

The suit had called on WestJet to implement mandatory anti-harassment training for pilots, along with an admission of wrongdoing and an admission of a breach of employee contract. None were included in the settlement.

Lewis filed the initial class action against the airline in April 2016. She said she was dismayed by the results, especially given that two years ago WestJet paid out $12.5m in a baggage fee class action, nearly three times the amount agreed to in the sexual harassment suit.

“I’m glad it’s over … but I’m just exhausted. I’m shaking my head,” she said, adding that she was advised the amount was the most that could be achieved given that legalexpenses were piling up.

Under BC law, the suit included all female flight attendants who worked for the company between 4 April 2014 and 28 February 2021, because Lewis’s suit alleged that all of them had their contracts violated by WestJet during that period because its employee policy promised that the workplace would be free from harassment.

The suit claimed WestJet broke its policy by not taking enough steps to address reports of assault or to prevent harassment in the first place.

Lewis said she was sexually assaulted by a WestJet pilot while on a layover in Hawaii in 2010 when she was 25 years old. In court documents, she said the same pilot had also assaulted another flight attendant in 2008.

Though she reported the assault to WestJet, the pilot remained at the company and Lewis was eventually fired in 2016 for “gross insubordination”, according to court documents submitted by WestJet that year, which she and her legal team allege was retaliation for trying to hold the airline accountable internally.

She said she abandoned an individual civil claim and instead created the class action after learning other flight attendants had also experienced harassment.

Lewis said she reported the assault to police in Maui but alleges WestJet rerouted the pilot so he would not face questioning in Hawaii.

She said fellow members of the class action suit were also disappointed with the result. Eight of them had already asked the province’s supreme court not to approve the settlement in February when some of the details first emerged, citing a low payout and a lack of accountability by WestJet.

“We didn’t get justice here,” said Lewis.

The case garnered national attention for exposing pilot behaviour toward female flight attendants and the vulnerability of the scores of young women who have historically been the target demographic for the job.

A 2018 survey of more than 3,500 flight attendants by the US Association of Flight Attendants found that 68% had experienced sexual harassment in their careers while only 7% had reported an incident to their employer.

WestJet did not respond to questions about Lewis’s claims of assault, and the allegations that it failed to keep the workplace free of harassment and does not properly investigate alleged sexual assaults.

In a statement, the company said it was “pleased to have reached a mutually agreed upon settlement”. It said: “We are committed to strengthening our operations and training, focused on the safety and wellbeing of all WestJetters and we are focused on advancing a culture of empowerment.”

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.