Logan Flight Attendants Take on Delta Air Lines in Wage Allegations

BOSTON/East Boston – One current and one former employee of Delta Air Lines has sued the company over wages and overtime allegedly not paid to them and other flight attendants.

Nancy DeSaint and Barbara Keenan claim that flight attendants for the company are typically not paid for the actual hours they work, and have launched a class action suit against the airline.

Removed from Suffolk County Superior Court to the US District Court in Boston on August 2, thecomplaint alleges, “flight attendants are typically paid only for hours flown and are not compensated for their work before a flight takes off and after a flight lands,” adding that they “are required to perform work before flights take off and after landing, but they are typically not compensated for that work.”

DeSaint, a current Delta flight attendant with an address in Cranston, Rhode Island, and Keenan, who left the airline last year and who has an address in Salem, Mass., filed the suit after they received so-called right-to-sue letters following a complaint with the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

According to the court complaint, it’s alleged that “Delta does not pay its flight attendants for all hours worked.”

It continues, “flight attendants are not properly compensated for travel time, including overnight travel and travel required to return to their base after a flight.

“Flight attendants are not fully compensated for all time on duty not are they fully compensated for on-call time, when they are required to report for work but are not ultimately assigned to a flight,” and that they, “regularly work more than forty hours per week, but they are not paid time and a half for hours worked over forty per week.”

The complaint outlines four alleged violations under Massachusetts state law that concern unpaid wages, overtime violations, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment on the part of the airline.

It’s alleged that, “By working for Delta without compensation, the flight attendants confer a benefit on Delta, and Delta is enriched through receiving the benefit of this unpaid work. Additionally, the performing of this unpaid work is a detriment to the flight attendants.”

They are seeking all wages allegedly owed to them, which may be tripled under state law, as well as attorneys’ fees, costs, and other damages.

The defense successfully sought the removal of the case from state court to federal court based on the amount that would allegedly be owed to those represented in the class action suit.

The notice of removal claims that according to the Massachusetts statute of limitations for unpaid wages, flight attendants any time between June 2010 and the present day could be included in the class; claimed to be some 436 active flight attendants based out of Logan Airport.

According to the notice, the defendant also “… expressly denies Plaintiffs’ allegations and theories of recovery, and expressly denies that they or the putative class they purport to represent is entitled to any of the requested relief …”

The case will be heard by Judge George O’Toole.

This article was produced for Open Media Boston's Open Court Project.