WestJet ordered to turn over more documents in class-action lawsuit

Publishers Note: This story originally appeared in the Jan. 6 edition of BC Today.

A judgement on an application released on Friday as part of a class-action lawsuit reveals WestJet Airlines had 24 harassment or sexual assault complaints by flight attendants against pilots between 2014 and 2021, and that this may be only a fraction of such complaints at the company.

Calling WestJet’s document production in the case “dilatory,” the Dec.11 judgment by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Hughes gives the company 45 days to produce all harassment and sexual assault complaint files made by flight attendants during the period covered by the lawsuit.

The case was brought by former flight attendant Mandalena Lewis, who was fired in 2016 while seeking information about how the company responded to sexual assault allegations she made against a pilot in 2010.

Lewis argues in the lawsuit that WestJet’s inaction breached its employment contract agreement to uphold an “anti-harassment promise” made to her and other flight attendants. This promise exists to protect flight attendants exposed by a “power imbalance,” Lewis contends.

She says that despite this promise, the company allows a culture of harassment to exist and protects pilots because it views them as more economically valuable than other employees. She also accused the company of requiring complainants to remain silent about harassment.

These assault and harassment allegations have not been proven in court, and this suit will not litigate individual cases such as Lewis’, but rather how the company responded to harassment and assault allegations generally.

Because of the company-wide implications, Lewis applied to have the case certified as a class action. This was initially denied in 2021 but approved on appeal the following year.

A WestJet spokesperson told BC Today the company does not comment on matters before the courts.

Document production efforts by WestJet called ‘potentially adversarial’
As part of the court process, WestJet was ordered to produce harassment complaints and “related files” for incidents that occurred during, or were investigated between, April 4, 2014, and February 28, 2021.

WestJet interpreted this as referring only to complaints by flight attendants against male pilots and took eight months to comply despite being given 45 days (the same amount of time as specified in the new order).

“The record before me suggests that WestJet’s approach to document production to date has been dilatory and, at times, potentially adversarial in nature,” Hughes wrote.

According to Hughes, while WestJet revealed 24 complaints against male pilots during the time covered by the lawsuit, internal company statistics indicate that “significantly more” harassment complaints were made at WestJet during that period.

Hughes points to statistics showing 16 complaints were made in Q4 of 2018 and 19 in Q1 of 2022 alone. It is unclear how many of these complaints were made by flight attendants.

Lewis tried to expand the suit to include harassment complaints by all employees, not just those by flight attendants. While Hughes allowed the document order to involve complaints against people other than pilots, she did not allow it to extend to complaints made by people other than flight attendants.

Second judgment limits breadth of claim
According to her claim, Lewis began looking into how WestJet handled her sexual assault claim after meeting another flight attendant in 2015 at a company training event, and finding out that both had allegedly been sexually assaulted by the same pilot.

The first assault allegedly happened in 2008, involving the woman Lewis met at the event. According to the claims in the lawsuit, the pilot involved admitted to the sexual conduct but still retained a leadership position. Lewis said she was assaulted by this same pilot two years later.

After this discovery, Lewis spent eight months trying to get a copy of her own employment file — which is supposed to be provided within 30 days — to try to get a sense of how the company responded to her allegations. After seven months of trying, she went on leave for stress and anxiety.

A month into her leave, Lewis emailed a supervisor, again demanding her file. In the email, she used an expletive. She was terminated later that day.

A second judgement in the case, made on Nov. 28 but released alongside the documents ruling, restricted the parts of this narrative Lewis can use in the suit.

Hughes found it relevant that Lewis began looking into the issue after meeting the other flight attendant in 2015, but that the actual events of the assaults and termination are outside of the date range and boundaries of the class-action claim.