Sun Country Deprived Pilots of 401(k) Contributions During Military Leave, Class Action Alleges

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Two Sun Country pilots claim in a proposed class action that the airline failed to contribute to their retirement accounts when they were on military leave, as required by federal law.

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The 39-page lawsuit says that under both the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and the terms of defendant Sun Country, Inc.’s 401(k) profit sharing plan, employees on military leave are entitled to receive pension contributions equivalent to what they would have received had they not been serving in the armed forces.

However, according to the case, Sun Country has been willfully skirting this obligation since at least 2019. 

The plaintiffs, both of whom are based out of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minnesota, claim they received zero 401(k) contributions from Sun Country each time they took their respective military leaves.

“When an employee is absent for military service, they are unable to log hours that would they have logged had they not been absent,” the complaint says. “Sun Country’s policy or practice is to make no plan contributions based upon these ‘unlogged’ hours to the employee’s account.”

Although the USERRA stipulates that employers must make pension contributions “at the rate the employee would have received but for the period of service,” this rule does not apply to many Sun Country employees who aren’t paid a fixed monthly amount, the filing states.

“The largest factor that influences compensation for pilots and flight attendants is the number of flight hours that a particular employee works and is compensated for each month,” the suit explains. “When a Sun Country employee’s compensation varies each month, the amount of compensation used to determine the employee’s contribution also varies significantly, and causes contributions to fluctuate from month to month.”

In cases where the rate at which an employee would receive contributions while on military leave is “not reasonably certain,” the USERRA states that employers must make contributions based on “the employee’s average rate of compensation during the 12-month period immediately preceding such period,” the complaint relays. “[O]r, if shorter,” pension contributions should be equal to the employee’s average rate of compensation during “the period of employment immediately preceding the period of qualified military service,” the case adds.

One plaintiff claims that around October 2022, he brought it to Sun Country’s attention that it was out of compliance with the USERRA’s requirements surrounding pension contributions for military leave. The suit contends that even after this confrontation and several more involving the union that represents Sun Country pilots, the Air Line Pilots Association, the defendant has failed to correct its alleged USERRA violations.

The lawsuit looks to represent any current or former Sun Country, Inc. employees who were participants in the company’s 401(k) profit sharing plan, completed a period of qualified military service that ended on or after July 21, 2011, and did not receive proper pension contributions during this period. The suit also seeks to cover any of these individuals’ beneficiaries.

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