Airline’s refusal to follow federal law prompted US Department of Labor litigation
PHOENIX – A federal court has ordered Arizona-based Mesa Air Group – operating regional flights for American and United airlines as Mesa Airlines – to follow federal law and correct the company’s pay policy that prevented flight attendants and pilots from exercising their rights to take time off from work for qualifying reasons under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
In what may be a far-reaching move for the airline industry, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona entered a consent judgment on Oct. 7, 2022, that closely follows the court’s earlier decision that flight attendants and pilots qualified for FMLA under either hours worked or hours paid.
In a court filing in support of the department’s allegations, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO stated that, before the passage of the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act, flight attendants and pilots found it nearly impossible to be eligible for FMLA leave because of how the industry calculates hours. The amicus brief explains that flight attendants are not paid their standard hourly wages for every hour on duty, instead they generally receive hourly wages only while the aircraft is moving.
The latest judgment follows an investigation and policy review by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that found that Mesa Air Group had a policy of using only hours paid to determine FMLA eligibility...
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