05/24/98 St. Petersburg Times From the outside, you'd never guess the business behind a nameless storefront in a Gunn Highway strip center is a multimillion-dollar Wall Street wonder.
"We don't even have a sign yet," said Mark Mastrini , 800 Travel
Systems' company president. "I don't feel we should create the Taj Mahal
when we could be sharing the wealth with stockholders and employees."
It's all they can do to answer the phones. The company gets 30,000 calls a
day from people seeking bargain air fares, Mastrini said, but right now they
can't hire and train people fast enough to answer half those calls.
Since 800 Travel Systems went public in January, the stock, listed as IFLY
on the Nasdaq Stock Market, soared from $1 to more than $10 per share.
Last week it hovered around $7.
On a tour of the 33,000-square-foot facility last week, Mastrini projected a
bouncy, youthful enthusiasm. At 34, he owns 125,000 shares of the
company's stock.
Ask anything, and Mastrini is eager to show and explain every detail about
the company he runs. What he won't talk about, however, is the federal
lawsuit filed this month against him and his corporation.
Three former employees, all of Tampa, allege the company allowed
Mastrini to practice a pattern of discrimination against women that created
a workplace permeated with sexual overtones, physical contact and
knowledge that sexual harassment must be tolerated to remain employed.
"The place was out of control," said attorney Ronald Fraley, who
represents the three women. "It was a hotbed of Title VII violations. The
human resources department was not there for the employees, but for
Mastrini."
One of the plaintiffs, Brandie Raulerson, said the human resources director
told her she was having an affair with Mastrini.
Mastrini would respond to the allegations only through a statement issued
by the company's legal department.
"Mr. Mastrini vehemently denies any wrongdoing," the statement reads.
"The company intends to vigorously defend this action on behalf of itself
and Mr. Mastrini."
The company says it has investigated the allegations and concluded they
are without foundation. It also pointed out that the allegations were
reviewed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which
ended its investigation without taking any action.
Raulerson filed the suit jointly with Thomica Davis and Vicki Kazerooni.
All three women worked in low-level jobs at the company's Carrollwood
headquarters at 4802 Gunn Highway.
Davis said Mastrini promoted her from telephone receptionist to a
supervisory position when he became president of the company in March
1996. From then until February 1998, she said he hounded her with
unsolicited sexual advances.
According to the lawsuit, he grabbed her between the legs, asked her to
have his baby, to climb on the copier so he could make a copy of her and to
"come to his home," so she would "never have to work again."
Finally, Davis claims, Mastrini asked if her refusal to give in to him was
because he is white. Davis, who is black, alleges that in January she was
demoted and had her pay cut $2.50 an hour. A month later, her job was
eliminated.
Kazerooni had worked at the company since July 1995. By August 1996,
she claims in the lawsuit, Mastrini was making jokes about the male
anatomy, had rubbed against her buttocks with his pelvis and massaged her
shoulders.
She said he asked her to obtain phone numbers of new female employees
and made sexually offensive remarks about those women and his desires
toward them. She said he talked to her about skinny- dipping and on
another occasion told her he had a "close call" with a pregnancy involving a
co-worker who was "late."
The lawsuit claims Kazerooni was fired Nov. 13, 1997, for leaving work
early and not clocking out.
Raulerson was hired in April 1997 as a booking agent at $7 an hour. Three
to four months later she became Mastrini's secretary. That's when she said
he started to hug her, invite her on dates and trips to Mexico and New
York.
In September 1997, Mastrini grabbed her in his office and pulled her into
his lap, according to the lawsuit. She got up and left. She was dismissed
shortly afterward, she said.
Tampa lawyer Jonathan Alpert routinely handles sexual harassment
lawsuits. He said it is likely in this case that the lawsuit will have no effect
on the company's image or stock price.
"You would ask what is the potential for collateral injury?" Alpert said.
"Lawsuits are never particularly good for a company's image, but it
depends on the market the company is trying to penetrate.
"This may have no impact at all on this company because they have no
physical contact with the public, which raises some interesting social
questions as we have more and more electronic commerce."
800 Travel Systems is among the 100 largest independent travel agencies in
the United States. It provides low-priced airline tickets for domestic and
international travel through toll-free numbers "1- 800-LOW-AIR-FARE"
and "1-800-FLY-4-LESS."
To accommodate even more customers, Mastrini says he needs to add
about 1,000 more booking agents to the pool of about 150 working in
Carrollwood and San Diego.
He showed company payroll records to a reporter to prove that agents
were making as much as $910 a week in salary and commissions. New
employees are paid $6 an hour for two weeks' training and are guaranteed
$7 an hour starting pay. At $2,400 a week, Mastrini is the highest-paid
employee.
As phenomenal as the company's growth may seem, Mastrini's own career
has been as remarkable.
While in college studying business administration, Mastrini said he got a job
working in the warehouse for the now-defunct Braniff Airlines. He got the
job by using his hands. He moved out of it with his head.
He saw an opportunity for advancement next door at the airline's
reservation center in Dallas.
"I interjected my ideas and was given a shot at working there," Mastrini
said.
The company moved him to an executive job as vice president of sales and
marketing at the reservation center, supervising about 1,000 employees, he
said. He was 28.
"My age," he said. "It works for me and against me. My age is aways
quoted. But when people meet me and see me, it works for me. I'm really
damn good at what I do.
"The computer revolution and the Bill Gateses of the world have made
being a young executive more acceptable, but there are still barriers."
When Braniff Airlines folded, Mastrini started his own computer consulting
business and was later recruited to work for 800 Travel Systems, he said.
Originally called S Travel Corp., the company was started in New York in
1994. Within two years, it had merged with another company, the Joseph
Stevens Group, whose principal asset was the catchy 1-800- FLY-4-LESS
phone number. An investor in that group had property in Tampa, and the
whole operation was later moved to Carrollwood.
In 1996, Mastrini's first year, the company had a $3-million loss, according
to company financial reports. By 1997, the loss was reduced to $262,000.
The first quarter of 1998 yielded a $165,000 loss for 800 Travel Systems.
"We have had a turnaround that is absolutely incredible," Mastrini said.
The company recently made headlines with the announcement of its
newest innovation: flight reservations booked through the Internet.
Customers will be able to log onto the company's Web site and chat
one-on-one with a booking agent to find the lowest possible fares.
"Do I think it's better? No. But it's a trend," Mastrini said. "People enjoy
shopping over the Internet and we are accommodating the consumer. The
trend in the industry is to replace people with computers. We believe the
key to success is keeping people involved.
COLOR PHOTO, KEN HELLE; COLOR PHOTO; Caption: At 34, 800
Travel Systems president Mark Mastrini heads a Wall Street wonder., (ran NTP); Mark Mastrini , (ran PAS)" |
