Southwest Airlines tries to have military discrimination class action lawsuit tossed

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 Update:

• A federal judge in Maryland dismissed claims that Southwest Airlines didn’t provide the same access to pandemic-related time off for employees on military leave as non-military workers.
• Southwest pilot Barry Weaver claimed Southwest violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. 
• The judge determined Weaver did not show that employees on military-related leave were left out of Southwest’s extended COVID-19 Extended Emergency Time Off Program and had not treated its military employees “less favorably.”  
• The judge also dismissed Weaver’s claims that Southwest discriminated against him, ruling he did not show the airline took “adverse actions” against him. 
• Weaver has been given a chance to amend his complaint.

Southwest Airlines Military Discrimination Class Action Overview: 

• Who: Southwest Airlines has called on a federal judge to throw out a class action lawsuit, claiming “fatal defects” doom the allegations.
• What: Employees who were on military leave during the pandemic are alleging that the airline discriminated against them by not giving them the same access to extended paid pandemic leave as other employees.
• Where: The class action lawsuit is pending in Maryland federal court.

(12/07/2021)

Southwest Airlines has called on a federal judge to throw out a class action lawsuit alleging that the airline discriminated against military service members who were on leave by not giving them the same access to extended paid pandemic leave as other employees.

In a brief supporting the motion to dismiss, the airline argues that plaintiff Barry Weaver, a pilot with Southwest, has “fatal defects” in his lawsuit, including that Weaver did not prove the airline’s policy for granting emergency extended leave through the program, known at ExTO, violated the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

The airline argues that Weaver did show that Southwest Airlines treated military service members differently from other employees when granting access to ExTO, as all employees initially on leave were excluded from the program.

“[Weaver] does not allege, and cannot plausibly allege, that Southwest denied ExTO rights or benefits to employees on military leave that it provided to employees on a comparable form of leave,” Southwest argues.

Southwest Airlines pilot says military members treated unfairly in class action

Weaver argues in his class action lawsuit filed in July that, unlike regular employees who got access to the leave immediately, military members were not granted the extended leave until they returned from military leave.

Weaver is a lieutenant colonel in the DC Air National Guard and a Baltimore-based Southwest pilot. He wants to represent other Southwest employees who took military leave after the pandemic hit in March 2020, and were denied immediate access to ExTO. 

In the Southwest Airlines class action, he says there are at least 100 service members that were blocked from the program due to their military obligations.

Weaver shot back at Southwest’s arguments that service members were treated the same as other employees on leave, saying that the immediate exclusion from the program was discrimination as military leave was different from other forms of leave.

Southwest, however, says in the brief that Weaver’s claims are “absurd.”

The pilot’s class action isn’t the only one Southwest is facing, with a group of airline passengers alleging in a lawsuit that Boeing and Southwest Airlines conspired to mislead customers into believing that Boeing 737 Max jets were safer than they are.

The Boeing 737 lawsuit was filed by a nationwide Class of passengers and is playing out in federal court in Texas.

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The plaintiff is represented by James E. Goodley of Goodley McCarthy LLC. 

The Southwest Airlines military discrimination class action lawsuit is Weaver, et al. v. Southwest Airlines Co., Case No. 1:21-cv-01891, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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