Jewish flight attendant sues Delta Air Lines over alleged discrimination
Delta Airlines planes sit parked at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on June 28, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is facing a new lawsuit from one of its Jewish employees over alleged workplace discrimination.
Roey Segev, an employee of the airline who lives in Florida, claims the airline has intentionally discriminated and retaliated against ethnically Jewish or Israeli employees.
In his lawsuit, Segev claimed that he was assigned to Delta's hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and was hired to work as a bilingual Hebrew and English-speaking flight attendant in 2019.
Segev alleges that he and another flight attendant emailed Delta on Jan. 27, 2023, about multiple employees on round-trip flights to Tel-Aviv who they say were "demonstrably antisemitic" to the two flight attendants and other Jewish Israeli passengers. He says that Delta never responded to his concerns.
Months later, Segev claims that a passenger physically assaulted a Jewish flight attendant on a flight to New York and that he and another flight attendant were "put at risk" while having to attend to the passenger after the airline failed to adhere to its policy of making an emergency landing at the nearest airport.
MORE: Delta flight attendants harassed as airline bans all non-U.S. flag pins on uniforms, colleague says
The flight attendant believes that the airline later retaliated against him for reporting these and additional "violations" by "fabricating complaints against him."
Lawsuit accuses Delta of employing Hamas supporters
The lawsuit also claims that Delta continued to employ multiple flight attendants who supported Hamas and "exhibited their hatred and explicit animosity towards Israel" via social media.
Segev said that Delta was "aware that employing persons who openly support Hamas terrorists on their social media platforms is a direct violation of numerous of its written policies, including its social media policy."
A group of 45 flight attendants wrote a letter to the airline saying they felt their safety was in jeopardy because of the four individuals' employment on Oct. 17, 2023. Despite Delta allegedly telling a group of flight attendants who signed a letter that their claims had been investigated, the lawsuit says the four individuals remain employed by the airline.
Segev is asking a court to award him compensatory and punitive damages as well as pay his attorneys' fees.
Previous lawsuits from Jewish Delta employees
Segev's lawsuit is not the first this year alleging Delta has discriminated against employees for their religious identity.
In August, a Jewish flight attendant from California accused the airline of "engag[ing] in a pattern of intentionally discriminating and retaliating against ethnically Jewish, Hebrew and/or Israeli employees based upon their race and ancestry," FOX Business reports.
According to that lawsuit, plaintiff Sasi Sheva claims he was given pork as a meal during a flight instead of the vegetarian meal he requested.
"Despite Plaintiff’s employee profile clearly stating he is Hebrew-speaking, Jewish and vegetarian, he was provided with a ham sandwich," the suit states. "Although Defendant does conduct training on cultural sensitivity for different types of passengers for a myriad of customer profiles, such training does not include the cultural and religious needs of Jews."
Sheva said complaints to his manager led nowhere and he was later given a hard time for asking for Yom Kippur off.
While a Delta spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, they told FOX Business that "Delta has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind as part of our deeply-held values as a global airline connecting the world."