Many people who take flights to and from Florida use United Airlines. The airline, which flies to more than 300 airports around the world, was recently ordered to pay one of its flight attendants $321,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim involving a pilot. United Airlines will also have to compensate the female employee for her legal costs.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the sexual harassment lawsuit on behalf of a flight attendant who claims that she was a victim of Internet harassment over several years. According to the woman, a pilot who worked for United Airlines posted an explicit image of her on several websites without her permission. The pilot captioned the photo ‘Fly the Friendly Skies” and included the flight attendant’s name and home airport.
The pilot’s activities resulted in the woman’s image being seen by her coworkers as well as an unknown number of people who could have been United Airlines passengers. The woman says that she was humiliated and embarrassed, and the activities negatively impacted her work environment. When the woman told the airline what happened, the airline failed to correct the behavior or punish the pilot, according to the EEOC. The U.S. attorney’s office launched a criminal prosecution for Internet stalking before the pilot retired.
When a person is being sexually harassed at work, the person’s employer has a legal obligation to do something to stop the harassment from continuing. If an employer fails to act after becoming aware of sexual harassment, the employer is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A person who has experienced this type of situation at work may want to look into Boca Raton, Florida sexual harassment legal assistance.
