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Delta flight attendants based at Logan sue for overtime

Two Delta flight attendants based at Logan Airport charge the airline would only pay them for time they spent in the air and say they're owed back wages for all the time they worked before and after flights.

Nancy DeSaint of Cranston, RI and Barbara Keenan of Salem filed a class-action lawsuit last month in Suffolk Superior Court. Delta moved this week to have the case moved to US District Court in Boston, in part because of the amount sought - more than $5 million.

In their suit, the two flight attendants - one of whom still works for Delta - say:

Flight attendants are required to perform work before flights take off and after landing, but they are not compensated for that.

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

They add Delta also didn't pay them for time they were on call at the airport but were not assigned to a flight and did not pay time and a half when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

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Comments

are they exempt or nonexempt employees? if they're hourly employees, theyll win; if theyre salary, they will not. every salaried person works "overtime" and does not get paid for it. i havent been paid for "all hours worked" since i was in college. wish teh complaint were more clear, or am i missing something?

and no you will not get paid to travel to work or overnight. ask the sales guy you just served the scotch to in 23A if HE gets paid for travel or overnights. ask the single mom in 16D on her first vacation in 10 years if her shitty job pays her to drive to work (2 hrs a day x 250 days/yr). nope.

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The fact that you had the analysis wrong too?

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I'm salary, and while I don't specifically get paid for travel time, it's definitely time that sooner or later I "make up for" with something else.

I'm curious about what they mean by "travel to work." If they're doing an overnight at a hotel, I would hope that their 8-hour day begins when they leave the hotel for the airport, and not when the plane departs.

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That's exactly how we get paid...From pushback to gate-arrival. All that boarding-hassle with the oversized luggage. No pay for that.

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While we are trying to make ends meet, airlines big wigs live it up. They nibble at our pay checks with higher medical insurance premiums to so called "benefit the company." We do not get paid for ground delays with passengers on board. Meaning, we have to serve them and answer their questions, be harassed for not giving them the answer they want to hear, and not be able to sit down for a minute. Only after 60 mins have pass is when you get the pay. Not 59 1/2 minutes before. That's outrageous! It's time to fight back!

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While we are trying to make ends meet, airlines big wigs live it up. They nibble at our pay checks with higher medical insurance premiums to so called "benefit the company." We do not get paid for ground delays with passengers on board. Meaning, we have to serve them and answer their questions, be harassed for not giving them the answer they want to hear, and not be able to sit down for a minute. Only after 60 mins have pass is when you get the pay. Not 59 1/2 minutes before. That's outrageous! It's time to fight back!

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No we are NOT paid for the duty time. We are in uniform and are told we MUST be there at a certain time for check in ,but we are NOT paid for it!. Hours of greeting customers, waiting on them lifting bags...NO PAY. Only when the the main door has been closed does our HOURLY pay starts, . If we are at our base, all we have to be here by a certain time in uniform, delays for our working flights, greeting customers,handling baggage, serving while the door is open ect...we are NOT paid. We are paid per diem at under 2.00 an hour only IF WE are away from our base. Yes flight attendants work a lot of hours and are NOT paid for them. Somehow I thing we deserve to be paid any time we are in uniform and required to check in at a certain time for duty. Duty is not paid.

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Exempt/non-exempt is by test of duties and responsibilities; I would guess non-exempt, but the details are what keep labor lawyers in business.

As to whether they are entitled to payment, the "required" modifier answers that (if it's true). If an employer requires you to do something, then it's paid time for non-exempts.

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If an employer requires you to do something, then it's paid time for non-exempts.

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I'm not in sales but I get paid for travel, door-to-door. If I'm lucky, I get sent to Asia and make ~30 hours before I walk in to work on Monday morning.

Driving to work and being flown to a variety of locations because that's what your employer needs you to do are two entirely different things.

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We r neither strictly hourly nor strictly salary which is why our management has been able to make up the rules as they go along and get away with it..Delta is an "At will employer" and for pay purposes we don't seem to be formally classified one way or the other as to an exempt or non-exempt status. We r paid a base salary based on seniority for the first 50 hours per month of flight time and then an hourly wage again based on seniority for every hour over 50 flown. We r paid small standard (non-seniority based) premiums for Purser,Foreign Language skills, International Flying etc per trip hour and I haven't looked lately but they used to tack on a few extra cents for so called "night pay" & "overwater pay" for working flights that travel more than a certain number of miles from shore (used 2 be considered higher risk LOL) Other service workers, on hourly wages have filed suits in the past 4 required but non compensated duties performed on company property. Nordsrtroms was one that got a lot of press when sales clerks sued. Not sure of the outcome but the suit came at the worst time for Nordies (they were expanding and brand building) and many customers were unaware that a company with such an incredible reputation for everyday "above & beyond" customer service were neglecting their "internal customers" As a Delta Flight Attendant of 25+ years: for many of us is the larger issues of having our company request "shared sacrifice" during financial hard times that were never actually shared have left us feeling betrayed. We accepted wage and benefits cuts of almost 49% since the late 90's and almost none of it has come back to us despite record profits & earnings. Our customers were charged fees, have fewer Flight Attendants per passenger onboard to serve them and have been asked to "buy food onboard select flights" and stay loyal to the airline. Oh Lucky Them! All the while chiming we are charging the fees to remain competitive and because this is what you the customer have told us continuously in surveys that you want. You have told us value pricing is your first priority in making travel decisions and you our customer only wish to pay for the services you actually use! (such as not paying for baggage device if you carry on and opting for a ticket that has an initial lower cost even if it's on a few dollars) I haven't been thanked for charging for pillows/blankets, luggage fees, etc! I haven't asked the F/A's who filed the suit however a verdict in their favor will positively trickle down.At the least I hope it helps create awareness as far as our customers are concerned that many of the tasks and time that they "assumed we were being compensated for" We were in fact performing for free. We wait on the planes & on the ground during delays for whatever reason and do everything we can to make it less painful for you For Free! We hang coats & get beverages in premium cabins and perform FAA mandatory pre flight safety for free! We asset you deplane and write mandatory flight reports at the end of the day off the clock! If a customer wants follow up regarding a question or concern it goes on a flight report. We r not paid for anything we do until the wheels r up and we go off the clock as soon as the wheels hit the runway. Don't misunderstand we love what we do and we love being of service and taking care of you our customer. We'd just like our management to make good on their promises to return the wages and benefits that we gave up when Delta fell on hard times ( that whole hard choices shared sacrifice thing) now that we have returned to profitability and to begin investing in human capital agin. You all have your raises, bonuses, stock options, pensions etc much of which you never gave up when we were losing money. In fact when the future of Delta was very much unsure you all planned for your futures in the event the company went under by setting up your own separate "special" pension fund apart from ours that would pay you no matter what! Along with separate "just in case guaranteed and funded exit packages". Currently many F/A's must log well over 110 hours in the air and still make less than they used to flying 75-85 hours. This winds up costing Delta more as our fatigue begins to affect health which affects performance and has resulted in more on the job injuries, increased healthcare costs, increases job turnover pre-retirement, increases training costs with a less experienced cabin crew as it pertains certain life and social skills and less time to hone abilities pertaining to "how to think on your feet when at 39,000 and need to promptly reengineer a less than text book day" while still maintaing a positive customer experience. Everyone has an innate need to feel valued. We don't feel very valued by our management. Like many working people Flight Attendants have been challenged to deliver a high value product to our customers with fewer resources. When I was hired our senior management was very proud of the fact that Delta had the highest Flight Attendant to passenger ratio in the industry, spent the most per passenger on in-flight food, consistently offered our customers the most "choice" in terms of options and our F/A's had been awarded best in-flight customer service of a major US airline for over 20 years. When we lost our title it was to Southwest. We F/A's were confused as to why they were even included when they did not serve food other than beverages and pre-packaged snacks. We did not wish to denounce their brand or operational goals we just thought it was like comparing Saks to Target different demography. We got over it as soon as they began making money while we were operating in the Red. Delta also told us when we were hired that they were proud that their F/A's were the highest paid in the industry with flexible work choice options the , most generous maternity leave, short and long term unpaid leave options,an auxiliary program (work share one F/A works 1/2 the month and shares with someone who agrees to work the other 1/2) generous paid sick leave, vacation time, pension, 401k etc. Now they brag that we r the lowest "cost per flight attendant" in the industry! The most profitable "major" airline,lowest paid workers in the industry. The Walmart of the skies if I may be so bold The pension program is gone if u were hired after 2005. They instituted a Social Security Offset 4 those of us hired after 1978 who still qualify for a pension. We no longer have employer paid healthcare in retirement we are given the option to purchase healthcare if we retire before we become eligible Medicare and where once Medicare was an afterthought now we are "required" to use it as soon as we become eligible as our "Primary Provider". Our paid sick leave and vacation time slashed. One In-Flight Services manager said "the rest of the world has to go to work when they are sick. I don't know what they are bitching about!" Delta has spent millions on expensive consultants and Union Bashing campaigns when if even a fraction of those funds had been redirected towards the F/A's and keeping empty promises we would not be trying to organize. Our last vote was a chilling 49% yes to a union 51% no. One of my colleagues at American said "we read the majority of Delta Flight Attendants voted No to a union" "The announcement was on our website." I had to explain that that was not exactly true. The vote was very close & any Flight Attendant that does not vote for whatever reason is automatically counted as a "No" under the rules. Management launched a 3 million dollar anti-union media blitz the week before the election & it was still really close..I have heard so many friends and family say "ya know I've never personally been a fan of unions per se. there has to be a better less contentious way ..guess we just haven't figured out what that "better way" is exactly but if anyone needs or deserves a union it's you all" I hope the F/A's prevail, I hope they are able to show the change over time to our Flight/Pay/Work and Duty Days rules and that were were once paid for much of that time and those services so why not now & why was Delta arbitrarily able to re-write our work rules, flight and duty day limitations (most significantly they do it because "they can") We don't have a legal binding contract. Our senior management have signed"employment contacts" but yet "management knows best" and In-Flight doesn't need a contract or at the very least published work rules that could't be thrown out the window do to IROPS that might hinder the "operation" The FAA is currently studying the effects of "fatigue" on safety operations with respect to the Pilots. I think I strayed off topic but shouldn't we be paid an honest and fair wage for an honest days work? There have been times when the pay of a new hire F/A if broken down by hours on duty is less than the Federal Minimum Wage. I hope our Delta passengers get behind our Cabin Crew after all they most likely work somewhere. The above respondent was clear that he was unclear regarding a portion of the complaint. F/A's do not wish or expect to be paid for travel to and from work as in from home to airport. We decide where we live and it is our responsibility to get to and from our home to work. What the complaint is referring to are trip rotations where we are based in for example LAX and originate from LAX but the sequence for whatever reason doesn't end in our base city. It for some operational reason ends in say SLC. We still have to get back to base because our next scheduled rotation will once again begin in LAX. We don't get paid for travel time back to base. We used to get paid for that leg back to base even if we were "deadheading" home and not actively working that last leg. We still have to be in LAX for our next sequence (sometimes the next day sometimes not) We're not necessarily stranded they block a cabin seat for us to get us back to base we just no longer get paid. I agree we have never gotten paid for "overnights" after all that is why a lot of us wanted the job in the first place. The excitement of travel etc.. However we did used to get paid a little extra if we were scheduled to begin a trip late at night & into the wee hours of the morning. For example our day begins at 10pm and ends the following morning. Similar to working a graveyard shift at a hospital or police force etc..Actually some companies do have paid travel days.Or at least credit for a work day. A salary worker on business is on the clock while on the plane. My Dad was a "road warrior" sometimes that meant leaving on a trip on a Sunday night because his meeting was early Monday sometimes he got home early on a Friday or even Thursday but for whatever reason didn't need to be in the office the rest of the day & could swing by an after school sport & cheer on my brother or me. He or she doesn't jump off the plane & then be required to work a weekend because the company viewed his travel to or from a meeting a a day off just because they were on a plane. The only company that I have ever heard of doing that was ESPN! They'd fly a producer cross country to produce a location shoot it might take a day to get there. They would do the segment then fly another day home & they'd be scheduled for say a studio shoot like weekend Sports Center with no days off and be expected in the office on Monday because they counted the cross country flights as day off even though they weren't home & couldn't mow the lawn or do those sort of off day activities. That was in the 80's though and they were trying to keep overhead low and cable sports were so new

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Your commentary is so well put! I do remember the times when there was a much higher passenger to f/a ratio. There was a time when w f/a's were highly valued, not so anymore :-( All motivation is just to keep stockholders in the dough. The f/a's are "hamsters on a wheel"- The world has changed - a f/a used to have equal pay to a nurse and at least as much as a teacher---not the case anymore

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The author of this post is obviously not a Delta FA. Their "facts" are in numerous cases, false and even the terminology used is not Delta terminology, but that of other airlines. For example, the word "sequence" which refers in the posting to a series of flights belonging to a particular trip is not Delta terminology. I'm not sure which airline may use this, but the word used at Delta is "rotation". Plain and simple,, NOBODY uses the word sequence to refer to a trip. In addition, on the occasions that a trip (rotation) ends in a city other than the city in which a FA is based, the FA is not only given a guaranteed seat back to their base city, but also paid FULL flight hours for the flight. This is called deadhead pay and it has been there for over 20 years. Lets move on to the next inaccuracy in Anon's posting: Flight pay starts at the time the plane leaves the gate and ends when the plane arrives at the gate.......according to Anon, pay starts when the wheels leave the ground and stops when the wheels touch the ground. Think about all the hours (especially in JFK) that planes wait in line for takeoff, especially in bad weather. All these hours are paid at FULL hourly wages....contrary to what Anon seems to think. Ok.....it should be clear now that this person is not a Delta employee and probably never was one. Most likely, this person is a Union stooge trying to bash a non-union company whose employees are indeed nowhere near the bottom in either pay or benefits.

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davgar-- as in Dave Gar? Delta internal auditor? Yeah, I trust you a whole bunch. I've worked for Delta on the ramp, and believe me, they have zero respect for their baseline employees. I can guarantee you I will never work for or fly with Delta ever again.

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wow. ms/mr debbie delta. who's side are you on anyways? do you actually think it's okay to require employees to work without being paid for that labor? it's always amazing to see these corporate SHEEP in our midst at Delta.

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Flight attendants are paid only while the aircraft is moving. They are strictly hourly employees.
Although it does not apply, when my husband, who is salaried, travels he gets an additional day off if his flight is on a weekend. If his flight is on a weekday, he is not required to come into work on a day off. So, yes he does get paid to fly to conferences and meetings. As for paying to get to work, I have been scheduled by my company to drive to my assigned airport, then take a shuttle to another airport which is 2 hrs away to work a flight. I got $9 for my time to get from Los Angeles to San Diego. My car needed to be in Los Angeles because that is where I ended up 14 and a half hours later. We do not typically work 8 hour days. We can work up to 16 hours without additional compensation. No overtime for us jk12!

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When you fly for an airline, you are based in a certain city. In this case, it's BOS. If Barbara did a trip
that went to 5 different cities, and ended in Atlanta (for example), the last leg of flying, ATL>BOS, would be just to get back to base. When the company assigns you an additional leg of travel, and does not compensate for your time on duty, it's a rip off. She is not off on a sales trip, being compensated as well as you are. "It's a whole different animal".

The industry standard is that you get paid for every leg of travel, from leaving your base, on day 1....
until you return to your base....days later. The time on the ground....doing pre-departure beverages, in 1st Class....or helping with bags, and closing bins....is basically volunteer work. Flight Attendants get paid beginning with closing of the door, and release of brakes.

Delta is primarily non-union for a reason...it gets to cheat it's employees, on a whim....and get away with it. Most Flight Attendants throughout the industry have union affiliations, which they could not survive without. Hence, the above complaint....bringing this to the courts has been a long time coming.

Flight Attendants ARE hourly paid employees. They are paid by flight hours....not work on the ground. Hope this helps to clear up some of the confusion.

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Delta has broken all unions except for a few such as ALPA. They are governed by the outdated 1926 Railway Labor Act and not the National Labor Relations Act.Therefore there are no contracts, job security, negotiated pay rates or negotiated work rules for flight attendants. You may sit on an airplane delayed for hours or in airports between flights and receive no pay. It is common practice to have long days (14 hours or more )domestic and receive 5 -6 hours pay. Using the bankruptcy courts pay and benefits were cut 40 percent along with pensions frozen or done away with totally for new hires.

It was once a great job that became a career and profession but now has been sent back to the 1950s. Most who continue to do it remember the good days and are ready to retire. Starting pay is $21.94 an hour and that would be great if it were based on a 160 flight hour work month. It is not. You may be gone for 20 days and yet receive poverty wages due to those long scheduled days sitting without pay. Granted you are not working but then again you are not going home every night either. Per Diem for meals is $2.10 per hour away domestically and $2.60 internationally. Not much in todays world where the dollar is suppressed globally.

I just thought I would clarify the position for those who feel it is a salaried job versus an hourly. At the unionized carriers it is a different story with some pay guarantees.

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Interestingly, airlines and railroad operational employees (e.g., flight attendants, engineers, pilots . . . but not folks working in the main office) are not covered by the traditional state or federal labor laws, but rather by the Railway Labor Act. Thus, the distinction of exempt/non-exempt doesn't matter in this lawsuit.

On a related note, some flight attendants tried something similar in California a few years back and failed: http://www.fordharrison.com/3286

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What the commenters seem to be missing is to ask two very simple and interrelated questions:

  1. What does the contract say? Is Delta in compliance with the contract or is it in violation of the contract?
  2. If Delta is in compliance with the contract, is the contract itself in compliance with applicable law, e.g., does the law give the employees certain rights even if the contract does not.?"

Without answers to those two questions, you're just blathering. Commentary about what the relationship between you and your employer, or your uncle Bob and his employer, or the sales guy in seat 2E and his employer, are all pretty much irrelevant.

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There is no contract!

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Whether it is express, implied, or statutory.

Just because the flight attendants aren't holding a piece of paper that says "employment contract" on it, doesn't mean there's no contract.

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FYI: Delta fa's are NOT unionized, so there is no contract!!

The time getting to and from work does not mean driving to the airport before my trip or driving home after a trip, but the time the airline flies you as a passenger back to your base because they dont need you to work that leg, or the time you leave the hotel to get to the airport (sometimes it takes hours), or the 5 plus hours of sitting around in an airport waiting for your next flight without pay, or the boarding process where you don't get paid until the door is closed and the airplane pushes back. Or how about after the airplane pulls into the gate and the deplaning process begins, the waiting for sometimes hours for enough wheel chairs to come and take all the wheelchair needing passengers off the airplane. We are still responsible for all the passengers on board, including the unaccompanied minors and we are not getting paid after the blocks are put under the wheels and engines are turned off. Do I think about that when I have to do CPR on a passenger that I find in the lavatory when we do our final check of the aircraft to make sure all passengers are off. No, I still take care of that passenger!! That person is someone's family afterall, and I would hope and imagine that others would do the same. Delta is the most profitable airline in the world right now...it's time they started compensating their employees as such, because sooner or later the FA's will unionize...and it will be a completely different airline!!

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The last two times I have flown Delta it has been a horrible airline - I had to request two blankets because my seat was so damaged I was sitting on metal!!!! Then they half destroyed a new carry on suitcase because I had to check it because so many bins were inoperative.

Another time recently, it took eight hours to get to RDU because the intercom to the flight deck was broken - and had been reported as broken TWELVE HOURS before the plane was scheduled to take off at 7am. They just didn't fix it while the plane was at Logan overnight.

I have asked my admin to NOT put me on Delta for the foreseeable future - nothing personal, but the airline just SUCKS! Not the flight attendants - the airline.

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Delta flight attendants are non-union. They do not have a contract.

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Any time you say "I'll pay you X if you do Y" a contract exists. It may be an implied contract, not written down in any one place, made up of bits and pieces of common law, statute, company policy and procedure manuals, letters sent to the employee, etc. But it's still a contract.

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It is a law that all people in the United States of America get mandatory overtime. But not if you are a Flight Attendant. I have flown for 30 years and have always wondered why we don't get paid for boarding and deplaning and why no overtime, EVER. These women are truly my heroes. They are first on my prayer list.

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Delta is based in a Right To Work State, and as the so many have written it also operates under the Railroad Act. Both of these inhibit the legal clarity of a contract, or union barging. In essence you can have a union and contract but not be able to enforce any of the wording of the said document. Only as an executive outside of this clause are/can you have any"rights". This the main unknown to most outside of the south, is the reasoning so many companies have moved from the north to the south. Look at pay in the south as compared to the north, and you will see a major difference. There is a reason.....

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This is interesting. Delta flight attendants are non-unionized. Without a union and a CBA, the Railroad Labor Act offers no protections to flight attendants. Delta Flight Attendants are issued "Work Rules," employment terms and conditions that are very gray, broadly interpreted in the company's favor, and change unilaterally at the drop of a hat. Delta domestic flight attendants are often on duty 16 hours or even more, one-third to one-half of those hours for pay.
So who does protect these flight attendants if the Railway Labor Act / National Mediation Board has shunned them?

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Not sure what airline you work for, but it must not be Delta. Delta has written work rules, not guidelines. They are not "changed at the drop of a hat" and they are not grey. They are generally printed in black. These two employees were very aware of the pay policy prior to accepting their positions and certainly while they were working. Best guess? A typical idiotic union ploy to paint Delta Air Lines in a bad light. Fortunately instead of making Delta look bad, it makes the two of them appear stupid. How many of you are working for a company and don't know how you are paid or plan to continue to work for that company even though you feel they are cheating you? Please.

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Excellent comment. These flight attendants are not new to this pay policy....they have been working for Delta for years. Additionally, the pay structure is the same at all comparable airlines....even those with a contract. I agree this is a ploy and one more attempt to stir the pot. Waste of time and money

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Actually,This suit does not make these two courageous FA's to appear "stupid" as you so eloquently wrote. I know these two FA"s and they are/were outstanding FA's!!!

Good for both of them for standing tall for what is right.

As far as your assumption that all Delta FA's know the pay policy,this doesn't occur typically until the last week of training. By then,the trainees are exhausted and just ready to be out on the line!

Also, YES! The work rules are just rules and can IN FACT be changed at ANYTIME!!! Just because they are printed in black, like our OBM's that constantly get revisions, so can the work rules handbook.

Some Delta FA's do not like to be cheated out of deserved pay, and refuse to report to work for volunteer service.

You don the uniform, you are in fact working!!!!

Good Luck to these two brave stews! There are many that have self worth and support them 100%!!!!

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There is no "time-and-a-half" rule as we're not sked at full-time at 40 hours. The RLA has different rules how transportation industry people are paid and how "time" accrues.

DL FA's don't "frequently" stay on duty over 16 hrs. Anyone that does hasn't exercised their right to "walk-off" the trip. It's in the work rules and shame on an FA who doesn't know them and complains later.

I don't know when you were hired, but DL makes VERY clear the pay WAYYYY before training...let alone the last week.

This is a silly tactic that is run every few years by some airline crew member who's trying to make a point and they end up looking foolish b/c they don't understand the RLA and the federal laws that govern their work.

I'd be VERY interested in knowing who's paying for their lawyers.

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Well, sounds like Delta is a bottom feeding airline. They definitely don't care about their passengers regarding service and starting to feel they may not care about their safety either. It saddens me when any airline/corporation feels they are entitled to treat their employees like crap. See how much longer it will take them to get their JD Powers award. I would never travel on Delta for personal use.

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Delta.......the only airline that ,Employees collected money to by an aircraft ( Boeing 767 ) for their airline......THE SPİRİT OFF DELTA.it was named..
...How about that!! DELTA ..not only carries passangers..also builds homes for the poor allover the world...carries and donates supplies for people and countries after disasters...helps kids with cancers....every christmas they provide santa plaine for kids who are sick and in need.....Delta FA.will escort and acompany a person to and at the hospıtal.when they get sick in the plain...I can go on...and on.Delta employes and passangers know thet already..unlike you union oriented 2 flight attandents..whom ever you are....I work for this company long time this is a family....with southern hospitalty....we love our airline ..I feel sorry that you feel this way...And yes there is no union at delta....never will be....no matter what kınd off tricks you people pull...we get more than any other airline with unıon..always have......we dont have union ..thats why we still have the great airline we work for....thank you..and good luck with your unionized lawsuıt...

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YOU PEOPLE NEED TO LOOK FURTHER THAN A PLATE OF FOOD OR,BLANKET BEFORE YOU JUDGE THE AİRLİNE.......HOW ABOUT SAFETY OFF THE AİRCRAFT..
HOW ABOUT EXTRA PAY OVER 16 HOURS DUTYDAY....HOWABOUT EXTRAHOUR LAYOVER ADDED İF YOUR TİME OFF HOTEL GOES BELOW 8.00 HOURS....HOW ABOUT OUR GREAT PİLOTS.EVEN THEY HAVE A UNION.THEY NEVER GO ON STRIKE BECOUSE THEY LOVE THEİR JOB.AND THE AİRLİNE THEY WORK FOR...

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We all know that our "flight pay" is calculated at a higher rate to compensate for the so called "unpaid" time. If we were to be compensated by the hour our hourly rate would just be reduced. At the end of the month we'd be bringing home essentially the same amount in our checks.

This is a frivolous suit that shouldn't ever make it to the court room.

I'm ashamed of some of the posters before me that claim to be DL flight attendants but have posted misinformation. Please check your facts before you misguide the public.

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The lawsuit is based on labor laws of the state/s. Has NOTHING to do with unions! As a matter of fact, if Delta was unionized, this lawsuit would never reach the courthouse. Unionized F/A's have a CONTRACT. Those are mutually agreed to by the company AND employee. Work rules are FORCED upon employees and MUST abide by state and federal laws. Most states require overtime and pay for hours worked. Before you bash unions and those that want them, do some research. Oh, and by the way, the airplane you talk about was taken from paycuts! It's all semantics.

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I was Northwest for 25 years and Delta for the last 5. And my new family sucks. It is so dysfunctional and abusive. I was actually excited when we became Delta because of all the wonderful talk.

But it has been horrible. I miss Northwest Airlines and my union more than I can even express in words.

Delta does do a lot of nice things for people and I appreciate that. But they seem to only do nice things that will show up in the paper and they can get a pat on the back for. Please, Please Please, Delta start doing something nice for us Flight Attendants we are sad and exhausted. Mom and Dad are not nice to us at all in this family. We need some family counseling ASAP

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I work for Delta...and there are no work rules! Sorry, dude (or dudes), we have been keeping score of the times that Delta has broken it rules (or guidelines) in order to shuffle flight attendant's schedules, trips, and layovers. We have guidelines, and if you haven't been screwed with, fantastic. Many of our DTW flight attendants HAVE been screwed...and it is all documented.

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I work in a different department with Delta and when I was interviewed for a FA position I was shocked at the way the pay is set up. I felt they were getting over. When flights are delayed 1 to 5 hours the FA's dont get paid for that. I was told there was base pay and when the door shuts and until it opens is what you get paid for. Paperwork, deplaning and everything is not compensated for but is a "job requirement" if its required why not get paid for it. And can you get fired for not following a requirement you dont get paid for? I mean does a judge get paid for a 1 hour recess in court? I think they will win based on labor laws.

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So if you don't like the rules you quit or leave. Now thats very lovely point of view! I must remember that when someone needs my help, lets say that their house was on fire. I guess I'll say that they should have invested in a whole house fire suppression system. Really in your world there should not be any help other than the fire department. Lets hope this person moved in an area that has a fire station near them, because they better not ask for one to be added to their area because when they moved in they did not notice that their city does not have enough...... I can go on and on.
In short in most of the industry these kind of rules do not work the same way, and this is coming from a senior to the industry. And more importantly, if the airline is making more money I would expect it to share real wealth with its workers, not just it's upper mgmt, and shareholders. A pay raise that is offset with a fee increase on insurance is no raise! So I totally support these women that have had it and are standing up. Sadly in the south, and it seems all over the states there are some very small minds today.
And lastly why do we need the Railroad Act today? Is it because it is a paid for benefit of company's and politicians?!?........

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I ran into the same problem with Delta Air Lines. I worked for them from March 2013 until April 2014. I was a contractor through Vaco, an agency in Atlanta. I was in charge of the International Billing Disputes for Cargo Accounting, and had to do the closing process every two weeks, including recognizing underbillings, rebills, working as many disputed billings as possible, doing the accounting corrects for other teams members, taking care of customers, sales reps, and doing the accounting, including write-offs from back in 2009 for the Collections Department.

The regular, full time employees went home at 5 p.m. every day, while I had to work most of the weekends in 2013, and had to stay and close the process, sometimes until 1:40 a.m. in the morning. On my first time-sheet, they told me that I had to alter it several times, to show banker hours(40) for the work week. This is embezzlement. They told me that Delta does not pay overtime, so the regular employee bonuses will be bigger at the end of the year.
One of the reasons the International Disputed Billings is so out of control, is Delta's Ops Department Re-DIMs shipments, and does not tell the customers, so I was the first party that explains to the customers the reason for the increase in cost for their billings after the initial dispute, so basically, I was doing Operations' job for them.

I complained to Vaco about not getting paid for OT, and I think Delta’s HR Department explained the labor laws to my Supervisor and Manager, but they ignored Delta’s HR Department, so they could go home on time each night and still get free labor out of me. On my last day of work, the Accounting team got together and told me that my experience at Delta is not the real Delta. This was like an admission of guilt.

Delta stopped its Corporate program of banking hours of OT and then allowing employees to get time off on an hour-for-hour bases at the end of 2013, but Delta pocketed the hours personnel had banked. I kept telling them that the program was illegal, and they told me that they have been doing it for a long time. When the program ended, they should have paid off any hours earned, but not paid. Delta not paying its regular employees, and scamming their contract workers out of millions of dollars of earned, but unpaid wages is probably one of the biggest cases of embezzlement in the history of the United States.

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I'm interviewing with NZ based companies in NZ and all I can say is... Thank God Almighty for unions! I don't know why the fuck US based attendants are willing to actually sign such a shitty contract that only pays them for 'wheels up' time, which is basically saying that arguably some of their most important duties - the work arming, disarming doors, cross-checking, pre-flight safety briefing, being on reserve and stuck at the airport, serving pre-flight drinks, greeting and escorting guests, all go unpaid! How disgusting! That would be like my current boss telling me that as a nanny, I only deserve to be paid for the hour I spend driving the kids to school, and not the time she requires me to spend teaching them, helping them dress, packing bags, etc. It's a pity that more flight attendants don't band together and screw US airlines for every red cent they have.

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