A federal lawsuit filed against airline caterer Gate Gourmet claims a Denver-area supervisor told an employee he did not give a damn about her sexual harassment complaint, and that the company fired her within months of her reporting a male colleague’s conduct. The employee, hired at a Gate Gourmet facility near Denver International Airport in October 2022, was responsible for stocking trucks and loading catering onto airplanes before her termination in July 2023.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit on August 28 in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, according to The Denver Post. Court filings reviewed by STL.News identify the woman at the center of the case as Maria Simon, who worked as a catering service worker at the company’s Denver-area facility for roughly nine months. Case tracking records reviewed by PacerMonitor list the matter as Case No. 1:26-cv-04015, with Seth H. Garfinkel named as trial attorney.
According to the lawsuit, a male mentor at Gate Gourmet made sexualized comments and gestures toward the employee, asked her to bend over so he could look at her backside, and asked her to lean back in her seat to give him a better view of her breasts. The lawsuit alleges he frequently stared at her as well. When she reported the harassment to her supervisors, the complaint states that other supervisors ignored or mocked her complaints, and one supervisor reportedly told her he did not give a damn about her report.
No Investigation, Then Termination
Gate Gourmet did not conduct an investigation into the reported harassment, according to the lawsuit. Officials at the company allegedly told the employee not to return to work because she complained a lot, and she was terminated in July 2023, per the complaint’s timeline…