WestJet has agreed to pay a multi-million dollar settlement to some of its flight attendants, resolving a long-running sexual harassment class action against the airline. The company has agreed to pay 4.5 million dollars under the terms of the deal.
The case is not a small one. WestJet has settled a lawsuit that was launched by more than 3,400 of its female employees, making it a sweeping action that reaches across a large part of the airline's cabin crew.
The dispute has been years in the making. According to the reporting, the complaint at the heart of the case was made more than a decade ago, and the legal fight has stretched on for more than 10 years before reaching this point.
At the origin of the class action is one former employee's account. The lawsuit began when flight attendant Mandalena Lewis alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by a WestJet pilot, a claim that set the wider legal battle in motion.
From that individual allegation, the matter grew into a broad class action framed around sexual harassment, drawing in thousands of the airline's female flight attendants who joined the claim over the years.
Now, after that lengthy process, WestJet has approved the settlement. The agreement states that WestJet will pay 4.5 million dollars, bringing a formal resolution to a case that had hung over the carrier for years.
The settlement marks a significant moment in a saga that began with a single flight attendant's complaint and expanded into one of the larger workplace class actions involving a Canadian airline, closing a chapter that stretched back more than ten years.