United Airlines Pilots Win $6.15M Military Leave Class Action Settlement

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A Colorado federal judge has approved a $6.15 million class action settlement between United Airlines Inc. and more than 1,000 United pilots who served in the military between 2000 and 2010.

This class action settlement is one of the largest reported payments to resolve a claim under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) in U.S. history. USERRA is a federal law that requires employers to honor benefits that military veterans would have received had they not taken military leave.

The United veteran pension settlement resolves a 2012 class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff James Daniel Tuten, a United Airlines pilot who took military leave to serve in the U.S. Air Force. He alleged that United failed to provide its pilots with the appropriate pension contributions that employers are required by federal law to provide for employees who take military leave.

According to the class action lawsuit, United incorrectly calculated pilots’ pension contributions based on the minimum monthly wage that pilots receive. However, Tuten argued that federal law requires employers to make pension contributions based on each employee’s average compensation in the 12-month period immediately before the employee takes military leave. He alleges that United pilots who took military leave from 2000 to 2010 did not receive the full amount of pension contributions to their accounts in the Pilots Directed Account Plan (PDAP), United’s pension plan.

Under the terms of the United class action settlement, all pilots will receive supplemental pension contributions representing at least 100 percent of the pension contributions United allegedly failed to make from 2000 to 2010, plus interest to make up for the pilots’ lost earnings on those pension contributions.

United has also agreed to make significant changes to the way it calculates the amount of pension contributions it makes for pilots who return from long-term military leave. Most significantly, the airline will maintain written policies about the manner by which it makes pension contributions for pilots on long-term military leave and make the policy easily accessible to pilots. Upon their return from military service, the pilots will be provided with written notice about the data and methodology used to calculate the amount of the contribution. United has also agreed to provide pilots with an estimate of the amount of pension contributions before they start a period of long-term military leave.

Class Members of the United class action settlement include all former or current United pilots who participated in the PDAP, who began and ended long-term military leave between Jan. 1, 2000 and Oct. 31, 2010, and on whose behalf United made pension contributions based on the monthly minimum flight hours guaranteed under the pilots’ collective bargaining agreement even though the pilot actually averaged more than the minimum flight hours during the 12-month period immediately before taking military leave.

The plaintiffs are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, the Law Office of Thomas G. Jarrard PLLC, Crotty & Son PLLC and the Law Office of Robert Mitchell PLLC.

The United Airlines Veterans Pension Benefits Class Action Lawsuit is James Daniel Tuten, et al. v. United Air Lines Inc., Case No. 1:12-cv-01561-WJM-MEH, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.