Delta Wage And Hour Lawsuit Settlement Reached At $4.25 Million

A Delta wage and hour lawsuit initially filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and moved to U.S. District Court, Central District of California has reached a settlement agreement of $4.25 million.

On June 9, 2017, the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of the Delta class action settlement, to be determined by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson.

This Delta wage and hour lawsuit concerns complaints from six named plaintiffs on behalf of themselves and a Class of approximately 3,400 current and former California Delta employees.

The Class is made up of non-exempt California Delta employees, save flight attendants and pilots, who were hired within the time frame of July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2017.

Delta Wage and Hour Lawsuit Issues

The plaintiffs in this Delta wage and hour lawsuit claim that the airline giant failed to pay overtime wages – one and one-half times the base hourly wage for worked hours over 40 in each seven-day week – based on actual time worked as indicated by time card punches.

Other initial complaints against the company included that they failed to provide adequate meal and breaks as provided by law and that they failed to reimburse employees for mandatory business expenses.

According to the plaintiff’s memorandum in support of the class action settlement, the U.S. District Court allowed the plaintiff’s class certification motion based on the overtime claim complaint only on Dec. 16, 2016. The court did not allow the certified Class to bring other claims.

Wins in the Delta Wage and Hour Lawsuit Settlement

According to Law360, Delta felt the benefits of accepting the $4.25 million settlement exceed the drawbacks of incurring the expense, risk of failure, and delay of further litigation.

The Delta wage and hour lawsuit settlement will provide an average payment of $728 per Class Member, based on a share per person and the current class size.

According to the legal documentation, the airline allegedly did not figure shift differentials – additional monies added to the rate of pay for working unfavorable shifts such as graveyard – and the pay-offs of their profit-sharing program in determining an employee’s regular rate of pay.

Now awaiting court approval, this Delta wage and hour lawsuit settlement is the pinnacle of two years’ worth of difficult litigation. Those two years included a failed mediation on Jan. 4, 2016, a Delta opposition to class certification and proposed class representatives on July 5, 2016, and multiple battles over the discovery and investigative process on both sides on several occasions.

The Delta Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-07302-SVW-SS, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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