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Delta terminated four Korean-speaking Agents for offering unauthorized upgrades

Delta terminated four Korean-speaking Agents for offering unauthorized upgrades

Old Jul 18, 2018, 7:57 am
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Delta terminated four Korean-speaking Agents for offering unauthorized upgrades

Four former flight attendants filed a lawsuit against Delta, alleging “race and national origin discrimination and retaliation.”
AJC.com - Delta employees claim they were fired for ‘speaking Korean’

The complaint is interesting since it seems to admit that the GAs were engaged in Shenanigans:
The complaint for damages also reveals the women “were suspended and ultimately terminated for allegedly offering unauthorized upgrades.” The woman said those upgrades are standard.

“Offering free upgrades, especially on an oversold flight, is a common practice, but suddenly, it became a reason to be terminated, just for us, for Korean women,” Kim said.

Song described the behavior for which the women were terminated as “a common occurrence on over-sold flights. Other agents do it, on a daily basis.”

However, only the four Korean-born women were fired by Delta Airlines, according to their lawsuit.
and
Delta Air Lines spokesman Morgan Durrant declined KIRO 7’s request for an on-camera interview and instead emailed the following statement:

“Delta does not tolerate workplace discrimination or harassment of any kind. Such behavior runs counter to our core values of diversity and inclusion and our mission of connecting the world. “We take allegations of workplace harassment and discrimination very seriously and our investigations into allegations made by these former employees were found to be without merit. “These former employees were unfortunately but appropriately terminated because the company determined they violated ticketing and fare rules. “Delta is confident that these claims will ultimately be determined to be without merit.”
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 8:59 am
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This article is confusing. It says the four women have a combined total of 50 years working for DL at SEA and they say Delta hired them because they fly SEA-ICN. Uh, DL has only been operating SEA-ICN for a few years. No way they were hired just for that route. It didn't exist when they were hired.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 9:37 am
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Has DL been handling the KE flights out of SEA?
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 10:01 am
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Originally Posted by readywhenyouare
This article is confusing. It says the four women have a combined total of 50 years working for DL at SEA and they say Delta hired them because they fly SEA-ICN. Uh, DL has only been operating SEA-ICN for a few years. No way they were hired just for that route. It didn't exist when they were hired.
I was wondering the same thing. My best guess is that before SEA-ICN, Delta (and Northwest before the merger) flew SEA-NRT-ICN. The Seattle area has a large ethnically Korean population - 1.5% of the MSA, twice as many as Japanese - and it wouldn’t be surprising if these GAs were hired to help facilitate checkin and boarding for connecting passengers.

While I have no specific knowledge, I definitely feel like historically KE had their own employees in Seattle handing checkin and boarding - the distinctive sky blue uniforms are hard to miss in the terminal. That may have changed with the recent JV though, of course.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 11:02 am
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If they really had filed a sexual harassment claim and then subsequently untimely fired. It doesn't look good either way...
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 12:17 pm
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If they settle out of court we'll never know the facts behind the case. It's needs to go through the courts to be on the public record. Let's have it.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 12:55 pm
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Originally Posted by readywhenyouare
This article is confusing. It says the four women have a combined total of 50 years working for DL at SEA and they say Delta hired them because they fly SEA-ICN. Uh, DL has only been operating SEA-ICN for a few years. No way they were hired just for that route. It didn't exist when they were hired.
The article says that "All four women believe their fluency in the Korean language was one of the reasons they were all hired by Delta, which flies daily between Sea-Tac and South Korea." Not that they were hired because Delta flies SEA-ICN.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 1:47 pm
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That article is borderline unreadable.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 2:28 pm
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I am following this case with great interest
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 3:54 pm
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I wonder who they upgraded. To say that free upgrades are SOP on overbooked flights doesn't mean that GAs are supposed to personally pick who gets the upgrades when DL gives them a priority list to follow......nor that GAs should upgrade more passengers than the number needed to resolve the oversell.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 5:31 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I wonder who they upgraded. To say that free upgrades are SOP on overbooked flights doesn't mean that GAs are supposed to personally pick who gets the upgrades when DL gives them a priority list to follow......nor that GAs should upgrade more passengers than the number needed to resolve the oversell.
That was my first thought too. That they were not abiding by whatever Op-Up policy DL has (though I don't know if they even do have one) and were giving upgrades to friends or perhaps worse, for personal bribes.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 7:14 pm
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This article doesn't give into a lot of detail, but it doesn't look good if Delta fired all four people at the same time and they all happened to be Korean speakers. I am certain there is more to this
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 7:54 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I wonder who they upgraded. To say that free upgrades are SOP on overbooked flights doesn't mean that GAs are supposed to personally pick who gets the upgrades when DL gives them a priority list to follow......nor that GAs should upgrade more passengers than the number needed to resolve the oversell.
Family? It would almost be expected.
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Old Jul 18, 2018, 8:02 pm
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Originally Posted by jamiestr
That article is borderline unreadable.
Thats the AJC for you.
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Old Jul 19, 2018, 5:44 am
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Originally Posted by vincentharris
Thats the AJC for you.
Could vincentharris or one of the FTers who liked his/her explain in plain English what AJC stands for? I looked it up in Acronym Finder and there was not one acronym that fitted (out ot 98 listed).
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