Today, a service member filed a class action lawsuit against Delta Air Lines in Georgia federal court accusing the company of failing to pay military leave to him and others.
Lead plaintiff, Randal Reep, seeks to represent more than 6,500 Delta employees nationwide who were denied military leave pay since 2007 for short-term absences related to their service. Reep says Delta’s current short-term military leave pay policy violates federal law protecting the employment of service members.
Delta is the latest company to face challenges from service members claiming that they were denied wages and benefits related to their military service. FedEx, American Airlines, and Walmart have all faced class action lawsuits detailing similar claims. Earlier this year, Walmart agreed to pay $14 million in a settlement over military leave pay.
In his lawsuit, Reep says that he began his service enlisting with the Florida Air National Guard. The plaintiff says he has been in military service since 1989 and is also a trained and commissioned F-15 pilot with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Reep says that, during his decades of employment with Delta, the airline failed to pay military leave wages for any of the short-term absences he was required to take as a service member — and he’s not the only one.
“Since at least 2007, [Delta] has maintained a policy or practice of refusing to pay employees their wages or salaries when they take short-term military leave, while continuing to pay employees their wages or salaries when they take other comparable forms of non-military leave, such as jury duty and sick leave,” alleges the class action lawsuit.
Reep points out in his lawsuit that both jury duty and sick leave are comparable to short-term military absences. They are of a similar duration, less than 30 days, and are involuntary in nature, he notes. In addition, military leave, much like jury duty, is a public service done to benefit society.
“When a [Delta] employee is required to be absent from his or her employment for any number of reasons (unrelated to military leave), including that the employee is required to perform jury service or take sick leave, [Delta] continues to pay the employee’s wages and/or salary during his or her absence from work,” states the lawsuit. “However, [Delta] does not continue to pay an employee’s wages and/or salary when the employee takes short-term military leave (i.e., military leave that lasts no more than 30 days).”
Reep is seeking back pay from Delta for unpaid military leave for himself and proposed Class Members. The class action lawsuit is also seeking a court order requiring Delta to pay for short-term military leave in the future.
Have you been denied military leave by Delta or another employer? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.
The lead plaintiff is represented by Joseph Coomes of the Law Office of A. Joseph Coomes, Gene J. Stonebarger, and Crystal L. Matter of Stonebarger Law, PC, and Brian J. Lawler of Pilot Law, PC.
The Delta Military Leave Class Action Lawsuit is Reep v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., Case No. 1:21-cv-01005-CC, in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
2 thoughts onDelta Military Leave Class Action Lawsuit Launched
I was denied military leave by my employer. In fact, my employer cooked up a whole plan while I was gone to say that they coincidentally “were going to terminate my position anyway two days prior to my deployment”. I was certainly never notified about this until I got back and was told I had no job. Every time I had to go on military duty before that point, when I went back to work my employer low-key harassed me about it. They said that I was in unreliable worker because of my military duties. When I got back and found out that they terminated my job, I filed a USERRA claim but the man who tried helping me had no luck helping me because he said that supposedly the business had documentation that they were going to terminate me “for a reason other than military duty” (coincidentally two days before I was deployed). Unfortunately I had no proof of the prior harassment because there were no cameras or witnesses. There aren’t many jobs in this town and I don’t have great transportation so I have been exceedingly low on funds since this incident.
Lt Col Reep is a commissioned officer, not an enlisted member of the Florida Air National Guard – ref your 4th paragraph.