Cheap Tickets Settles Harassment Suit

Cendant Corp.’s Cheap Tickets, an online discount travel service, agreed Thursday to pay $1.1 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The agency claimed in a class-action lawsuit filed in September that female employees in Cheap Tickets’ Los Angeles call center were subjected to unwelcome touching, propositions for sexual favors and sexually charged speech from male supervisors.

The suit also alleged that Cheap Tickets fired one female employee when she complained about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Cheap Tickets did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement and said in a joint statement with the EEOC that it “entered into this amicable agreement because we believe it is in the best interest of our company and our former employees to put this matter to rest.”

Cheap Tickets closed its Los Angeles office in 2001, before Cendant purchased the firm.

Shares of New York-based Cendant rose 12 cents to $17.07 in New York Stock Exchange trading.