Airline settles discrimination lawsuit with Colorado pilots
Frontier Airlines will settle a federal lawsuit filed by five pilots who accused the Denver-based airline of discriminating against them during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
Through the settlement, Frontier will allow pilots to pump breastmilk in the cockpit during noncritical phases of a flight and will update or comply with existing policies that impact pregnant and lactating employees.
It is one of the first airlines to allow pilots to pump during flights, according to a Monday news release from the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Colorado, Denver-based legal nonprofit Towards Justice and the firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg.
Settling the lawsuit filed in December 2019 “does not admit any liability” by Frontier, according to the news release.
In a statement, ACLU Center for Liberty staff attorney Aditi Fruitwala said the organization is proud to come to an agreement that will benefit pregnant and lactating workers now and in the future.
“This settlement should serve as a strong message to employers — especially airline employers — that reasonable accommodations such as those agreed to by Frontier are good for workers, good for families, good for business and required by the law,” Fruitwala said.
“We’re hopeful this will inspire more change and stronger protections for workers across the airline industry.”
Two lawsuits filed by Coloradobased pilots and flight attendants in December 2019 alleged the airline’s policies and practices were discriminatory, including forbidding women from pumping while in uniform and disciplining them for seeking breastfeeding-related accommodations. All of the women flew out of Denver International Airport.
The lawsuits also alleged that Frontier forced employees onto unpaid leave during their pregnancies and did not allow them to seek accommodations that could have kept them on the job.
According to the news release, Frontier Airlines has agreed to:
• Comply with an existing
union agreement that allows pregnant pilots to fly with medical certification;
• Clarify that pilots who cannot fly due to pregnancy or lactation will be accommodated on the same terms as pilots with other medical conditions that prevent them from flying;
• Continue to allow pilots who are breastfeeding to drop to 50 hours of flight time per month; and
• Maintain a list of airport lactation facilities that is published on an internal website and updated every six months.
The lawsuit filed by the flight attendants was settled in April 2022 under similar terms, according to the ACLU.
In a statement, Frontier’s Vice President of Labor Relations Jacalyn Peter said the company is proud to be at the forefront of accommodating the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in the airline industry.
“Thanks in part to advances in wearable lactation technology, the parties were able to reach an amicable resolution of this case that also maintains our commitment to the highest safety standards,” Peter said.
Representatives for Frontier Airlines, the ACLU and ACLU of Colorado declined to comment on the settlement beyond statements included in the news release. A copy of the settlement was not immediately available Monday evening.
A Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, June 10, 2020.