Southwest Airlines Agrees to End DEI Employment Practices in Response to Lawsuit

Southwest Airlines dropped its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements on Monday, according to a constitutional rights legal firm that sued the airline company over what it alleged to be “unlawful discriminatory employment practices.” America First Legal (AFL) issued a statement& on Tuesday in which it shared a letter from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) confirming the airline company “acknowledged and agreed to end its illegal race and sex-based discrimination in all hiring and promotional processes, including all unlawful DEI quotas, benchmarks, or preferences.” The OFCCP said in the letter that it held an “informal compliance conference” with Southwest Airlines to address the allegations AFL made in a complaint filed in January. The OFCCP reported to AFL in the letter that Southwest “understands that OFCCP regulations do not permit quotas, preferences, or set asides” and agrees that placement goals regulations “are not to be interpreted as a ceiling or floor for the employment of particular groups of persons, but rather should serve as a benchmark against which Southwest Airlines Co. measures the representation of persons within its workforce.”& In the complaint, AFL alleged that Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines are in...