United Airlines Employee Files Suit Alleging Labor Law Abuses

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In a lawsuit recently removed to federal court in California, an employee accuses United Airlines, Inc. of various labor law abuses, including the failure to properly calculate overtime wages and provide compensation for missed meal and rest breaks.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit says she has been employed by the airline as a ramp agent since September 2016 and receives an hourly wage plus non-discretionary incentive wages, including shift differential wages for working undesirable shifts and performance-based incentive pay. United, however, fails to include this additional incentive pay as part of employees’ regular rates of pay when calculating their time-and-a-half overtime rates, the lawsuit says. As a result, the plaintiff and others were underpaid for the hours they worked above 40 each week, according to the case.

The suit goes on to allege that United unlawfully requires employees to work off the clock without pay and even differentiates between workers’ “actual start” times and “scheduled start” times in its own timekeeping system.

Moreover, the plaintiff claims she and other workers are frequently unable to take bona fide meal and rest breaks because the “demands of working in the airline industry” require them to remain at their posts to ensure the airline is operating in a timely and safe manner. As a result, the suit says, workers often forfeit their legally mandated breaks without appropriate compensation.

The lawsuit seeks to cover a proposed class of non-exempt employees who worked for the defendant in California, excluding those who were employed as flight attendants.