Air Marshals Win Certification in TSA Age Discrimination Lawsuit

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A group of federal air marshals has won class certification in a TSA age discrimination class action lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar granted the plaintiffs’ motion for certification, allowing them to bring their claim as a collective action against the Transportation Safety Administration under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The TSA did not oppose the motion for class certification.

The plaintiffs are current or former federal air marshals and as such are employees of the TSA. They allege they were victims of a systematic plan by the TSA to replace them with younger workers.

Class certification will allow the plaintiffs to represent all other federal air marshals affected by the alleged plan. The parties are now required to coordinate efforts to notify Class Members of the TSA class action lawsuit, giving them a chance to affirmatively opt into the plaintiff Class.

K.H. filed this TSA class action lawsuit in June 2015, identifying himself only with his initials to protect national security and his personal safety. Several other plaintiffs joined the action in January 2016.

The plaintiffs allege that in planning closures of TSA field offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Tampa, the agency is forcing older air marshals to choose between a forced resignation or a burdensome reassignment to a different geographical area.

The TSA targeted those offices precisely because they each had the highest percentage – about 90 percent in each office – of federal air marshals over the age of 40, the plaintiffs claim.

“The TSA is making any move to any other Field Office extremely difficult, expensive, unpalatable, and problematic, thus effectuating TSA’s intent to purge older workers from the [Federal Air Marshal Service]. Thus, the Field Office closures are tantamount to a constructive discharge,” the TSA lawsuit reads.

K.H. says he was working as a federal air marshal in the TSA Tampa field office in August 2014 when a supervisor told him he had been reassigned to the San Francisco field office. He was given 10 days to either accept the reassignment or have his employment terminated, he says.

Judge Tigar’s order requires the TSA to provide defendants with the names and addresses of all Class Members. Plaintiffs must then send out notices to each Class Member, prompting them to affirmatively opt into membership in the Class. Class Members will have 60 days from the date of mailing of the notice to postmark their response.

The certified Class will represent all federal air marshals who were affected by the closures of the field offices at issue and who were over 40 years old at the time the decision to close those offices was made.

In K.H.’s original court filing, he seeks a damage award of $300,000, plus costs and attorney’s fees. He also seeks an injunction to address the TSA’s allegedly discriminatory conduct and to prohibit future field office closures.

K.H. is represented by attorney Nicholas M. Wieczorek of Morris Polich & Purdy LLP.

The TSA Age Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is K.H., et al. v. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Case No. 3:15-cv-02740, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.