SkyWest Class Action Lawsuit Over Wage and Hour Gets Second Chance

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Flight attendants have won an appeal, reviving claims that SkyWest failed to properly pay them and sending the case back to the trial court.

Lead plaintiffs, a group of SkyWest flight attendants, allege that they were not paid for work done while on the ground before, between and after flights. Under the SkyWest payment policies, flight attendants are paid for “duty days,” but the plaintiffs claim the actually hourly wages they receive for those wages are far below legally mandated minimum wage standards.

According to the class action lawsuit, SkyWest’s payment scheme violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA). The FSLA establishes standards for overtime, employee classification, minimum wage, and meal and rest breaks. The law protects employees from underpayment, unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, and other wage and hour violations.

States often have similar laws protecting employee rights.

The SkyWest class action lawsuit had been dismissed in a previous decision by the district court, finding that the flight attendants had failed to establish that the airline violated federal minimum wage laws and that the state laws did not apply.

The plaintiffs brought the class action lawsuit to the Seventh Circuit on appeal and secured a reversal on the dismissal of their state law claims.

“States possess authority to regulate the labor of their own citizens and companies, so we apply that doctrine sparingly to wage regulations,” stated the Seventh Circuit in their order reinstating the class action lawsuit. “The dormant commerce clause does not preclude state regulation of flight attendant wages in this case, particularly when the [Fair Labor Standards Act] itself reserves that authority to states and localities.”

The federal wage and hour claims in the SkyWest class action lawsuit did not make it through the appeals process, however.

“The Flight Attendants plausibly allege they were not paid for certain hours of work. We agree with other federal circuits, however, that under the FLSA the relevant unit for determining a pay violation is not wages per hour, but the average hourly wage across a workweek. Because the Flight Attendants failed to allege even a single workweek in which one of them received less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, we affirm the dismissal of those claims,” noted the order.

The Seventh Circuit also noted that flight attendants work long and varied days and are hired at a wage of $17.50 per hour to start.

“We are pleased with the Seventh Circuit’s opinion,” noted an attorney for the plaintiffs in a statement to Law360. “As Chief Circuit Judge Diane Wood pointed out in the hearing, it makes little sense that the dormant commerce clause could invalidate part of a federal statute that was enacted based upon the commerce clause. We look forward to proceeding with our case in the trial court.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Gregory F. Coleman, Lisa A. White, Adam A. Edwards and Mark E. Silvey of Greg Coleman Law PC, and Edward A. Wallace and Tyler J. Story of Wexler Wallace LLP.

The SkyWest Class Action Lawsuit includes Andrea Hirst, et al. v. SkyWest Inc., et al., Case No. 17-­3643 and 17­3660, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

UPDATE: On Feb. 15, 2019, SkyWest wants a decision that revived a flight attendant wage and hour class action lawsuit to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

UPDATE 2: On Feb. 13, 2020, in the latest development of the SkyWest wage and hour class action lawsuit, flight attendants stated that a decision made in a separate California class action lawsuit supports their argument.