A Southwest flight attendant who becomes “violently ill” from pet dander is suing the airline for disability discrimination, claiming it failed to accommodate her allergy by forcing her to work on flights with dogs and cats in the cabin.
Lisa Patterson, a Chicago-based employee of the airline for over 25 years, said her hypersensitivity to pet dander became an issue after Southwest Airlines began allowing small domesticated cats and dogs aboard flights in 2018, according to a suit obtained by Paddle Your Own Kanoo.
About a year after the pet policy was initiated, Patterson wrote to a company higher-up requesting an accommodation, saying she’d be subjected to a “severe illness” if exposed to the pets inside the cabin, according to the suit.
Months later, the superior responded that no accommodation could be made, leading the dander-intolerant attendant to have “difficulty breathing” as a result of the pet exposure, the complaint reads.
Accommodations for allergic crew did go into effect in 2021, though none of the options were particularly favorable for an allergy-sensitive airline attendant, Patterson argued in the suit.
Southwest said employees could swap positions or flights with other crew to avoid the allergy-inducing pets – or simply go home and miss a paycheck, the complaint said.
Getting employees to swap their positions on the plane was a challenge, as many were unwilling to switch with Patterson, as was finding alternative flights without pets, the suit states.
Suggestions to Southwest superiors to move pets out of sections where Patterson worked were also ignored, the suit alleges.
As a result of the airline’s alleged failure to accommodate her allergy, Patterson either lost out on “substantial revenue,” or would get so ill while working flights with pets she’d need costly medical attention, according to the suit.
Patterson said Southwest’s failure to accommodate her allergies constituted discrimination.
She is requesting salary, benefits and seniority that she lost out due to her allergy, as well as her attorney’s fees covered.
Southwest did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
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