Passenger sues easyJet for gender discrimination.
A British-Israeli woman is suing easyJet for around $20,000 after the airline moved her to a different seat because an Orthodox Jewish man refused to sit next to her.
Melanie Wolfson, 38, was flying from Tel Aviv to London when a man with his son told Wolfson he didn’t want her sat in the same row.
According to reports, an easyJet flight attendant sided with the man and asked Wolfson to move to another seat, offering her a free hot drink as an incentive.
Wolfson says she was “insulted and humiliated” by the request and that it was the first time in her adult life that she was discriminated against for being a woman.
“I would not have had any problem whatsoever switching seats if it were to allow members of a family or friends to sit together, but the fact that I was being asked to do this because I was a woman was why I refused,” she said.
Fearing she would be blamed if the flight was delayed, she eventually agreed to sit elsewhere.
Eight weeks later on another flight to London, Wolfson claims she was again asked by two male Orthodox Jews to switch seats so they didn’t have to sit next to a woman.
The lawsuit is being filed in Israel on Wolfson’s behalf by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), which won a similar case in 2017 brought against El Al.
According to the suit, several flight attendants told Wolfson during the first flight that women were often asked to switch seats in order to accommodate ultra-Orthodox men.
In a statement, easyJet said: “We take claims of this nature very seriously. Whilst it would be inappropriate to comment, as this matter is currently the subject of legal proceedings, we do not discriminate on any grounds.”
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