A former Allegheny County Airport Authority employee filed a federal lawsuit this week accusing the organization of racism.

Charmaine Easie-Samuels, who worked in the agency’s marketing, communications and customer experience department, was hired as a vice president in December 2021. She was fired nearly a year ago.

The lawsuit includes claims for discrimination and retaliation under both state and federal law.

In a statement, airport authority solicitor Jeff Letwin said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed Easie-Samuels’ discrimination charge when she filed it last year.

“The allegations in the lawsuit are baseless and false and will be responded to vigorously in court,” he said.

According to the complaint, the airport’s diversity statistics were “abysmal” in leadership positions when Easie-Samuels was hired. There were no people of color with the title of senior vice president and only one Black person as a vice president, the complaint said.

There was one Black director out of 30.

“Ms. Easie-Samuels’ experience at the airport demonstrates the organization’s undercurrent of bias and discrimination towards people of color,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint said that Easie-Samuels, who had 15 years experience in global communications, initially excelled at her work, receiving regular praise for her contributions toward strategic communications focusing on leadership and HR priorities.

She reported directly to Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis, as well as three other vice presidents in marketing communications.

Easie-Samuels said she was reassigned in March 2022 and became the subject of a targeted attack to push her out of her job.

At a meeting about British Airways in April 2022, the lawsuit said that Easie-Samuels, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom, said the outline being discussed “didn’t make sense.”

After the meeting, she said Cassotis called her into her office and reprimanded her.

“She was told that it was ‘not part of the culture’ to express feedback like that,” the lawsuit said.

But, the complaint continued, her white counterparts were “invited to freely express their opinions during meetings, which often included stating things were ‘(expletive)’ and other swear words, without reprimand.”

After she was chastised, the complaint said, Easie-Samuels kept her opinions to herself. She was then criticized by Cassotis for staying silent.

Easie-Samuels told Cassotis that her colleagues policed her tone and that she was judged and scrutinized by her white team members in ways they were not.

In May 2022, the lawsuit alleges that airport officials began stripping Easie-Samuels of her responsibilities.

A couple of months later, the complaint said, Easie-Samuels went to HR to ask if employees of color could use a meeting room during lunch to connect and build relationships to support the airport’s claimed diversity and inclusion initiative.

The chief human resources officer forbade the gathering, the lawsuit said.

“Human Resources stated that the airport forbids ‘Employee Resources Groups,’ that the ‘organization is not ready for this,’ and that they needed to take such an initiative ‘off campus on their own time,’” the lawsuit said.

“The airport further engaged in microaggressions towards Ms. Easie-Samuels by criticizing her ‘tone’ and vernacular, claiming that she was tough, harsh, rude and abrasive,” the complaint said.

She said she also was told she needed to “fit in more,” and was criticized for not sitting with her all-white team at an internal event.

On Sept. 15, Easie-Samuels made a formal complaint of race discrimination.

She was terminated on Sept. 26, the lawsuit said, “‘due to relationships.’”

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