The U.S. Department of Labor ordered Southern Air Inc. to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against former employees and pay them more than $7.9 million in wages, damages and legal fees.
The company indicated it will appeal the decision to the Labor Department”™s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
Based in Norwalk, Southern Air provides charter service for government agencies, cargo companies, passenger air carriers and other companies, operating 17 Boeing 747 aircraft. The company was acquired in 2007 by Oak Hill Capital Partners, which has offices in Stamford and New York City.
Nine flight crew personnel filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), after they expressed safety concerns about Southern Air. The company subsequently sued them for defamation.
OSHA determined the company”™s lawsuit was a form of retaliation for activities protected under the whistleblower provisions of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century.
“This order sends a strong and clear message that these and other workers have the right to raise safety issues with their employers and regulatory agencies without fear of retaliation and intimidation,” Hilda Solis, U.S. secretary of labor, said in a statement. “The Labor Department will vigorously investigate such allegations.”
DOL ordered Southern Air to:
Ӣ withdraw its lawsuit;
Ӣ pay $6 million in compensation for lost future earnings by the whistleblowers;
Ӣ pay $2 million in compensatory damages and legal fees;
Ӣ purge personnel records of any warnings or other references to the whistleblowersӪ activities;
”¢ refrain from mentioning the complainants’ protected whistleblower activities in response to inquiries from other parties and;
Ӣ provide Southern Air employees with information on the Federal Aviation AdministrationӪs whistleblower protection program.
The company said in a statement that it filed its lawsuit only after the former employees made “unprotected defamatory statements directed to Southern Air”™s customers and the business community that were intended to harm Southern Air”™s operations,” and that in a Feb. 17 ruling the Connecticut Superior Court found that defamatory statements made outside of the OSHA context were not necessarily protected.
“This is not a case of whistleblowers being dismissed or retaliated against,” said Brian Neff, president of Southern Air. “This is an issue of Southern Air exercising its right to protect its reputation and business
