Et tu, JetBlue?
The no-frills airline headquartered in Queens is the latest company to get hit by a lawsuit alleging violations of the city’s paid-sick-leave act.
The city Consumer Affairs Department filed the claim against JetBlue with the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings on Friday.
Consumer Affairs had previously filed a similar action against Delta Air Lines, and has an open investigation into a third airline and a subcontractor for alleged sick-leave violations.
The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings case filed against JetBlue says the company routinely penalized workers for calling in sick and used progressive punishments that could result in termination.
JetBlue is also accused of failing to properly award sick-leave days to workers and retaliating against employees who got ill and needed to stay at home. The company also failed to provide employees with a copy of their rights under the law, Consumer Affairs said.
“When businesses punish their employees for using the paid sick time they deserve, it not only puts the individual’s health at risk, but that of the general public as well,” Mayor de Blasio said, adding that workers should know “we have your back.”
Consumer Affairs Commissioner Lorelei Salas also noted that airlines in particular should be diligent about keeping sick employees at home.
“There are millions of passengers boarding flights in the city every year. … No one wants to get sick because an employee at the check-in counter or their flight attendant had to choose between coming to work sick and facing disciplinary action, or taking care of themselves or their loved ones,” Salas said.
Consumers Affairs’ investigation began in late 2015 after the city received several complaints from JetBlue employees.
Nine current and former JetBlue employees — six flight attendants, two members of the ground crew and one customer service worker — are included in the current Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings case. The city is withholding their names to prevent company retaliation, the suit said. Three workers say they were already fired under JetBlue’s disciplinary policy.
“After working as a flight attendant for JetBlue since 2002, I was terminated in late 2015 because a supervisor said I had accrued too many points on my record for calling in sick,” said Kevin Wertman, who has lived in New York since he graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology 20 years ago.
Wertman was booted less than a month after he transferred to Fort Lauderdale.
“The day I was suspended, I was stripped of my badge, my flight attendant manual and denied a flight home to New York,” he said. “I had to pay to return home … then I was fired.”
Wertman, 41, said he needed to rely on his sick leave several times in the year leading up to his dismissal.
He said Jet Blue told him they did not have to follow the city’s paid-sick-leave law because as a flight attendant, he worked in the air — beyond de Blasio’s jurisdiction.
“I was dumbfounded by that. I said when I called in sick it was from the phone in my New York apartment,” Wertman said.
He protested in writing and in meetings, to no avail, he said.
Wertman was not the only employee fired for calling in sick, Consumer Affairs said.
Ground crew customer service worker Chris Dumpson, 33, who worked for JetBlue for more than 10 years, was also let go.
Dumpson, who said he and other ground crew were talking with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about the possibility of unionizing, often spoke with supervisors to point out their violations of paid sick leave, he said.
He and a group of co-workers even went down to JetBlue headquarters — uninvited — to talk about the problems, he said.
On Oct. 23, he was fired for not completing his minimum required weekly hours, he said.
“It was completely untrue — I had actually worked overtime during that pay period, but I took two sick days that I had in the bank. But the company didn’t pay me for them or credit me for them,” he said.
He told his manager right away that he was being fired because of a clerical error, he said. He also went to JetBlue headquarters to challenge the decision. Ten days later, the company admitted the discrepancy was its error — but sacked Dumpson for insubordination, he said.
If found guilty, JetBlue could have to cough up back pay for fired employees plus fines and additional restitution. For some of the employees, the fine and restitution alone would equal $3,050.
Since the city first established the paid sick-leave law three years ago, Consumer Affairs has closed more than 900 paid-sick-leave cases, securing more than $4.9 million in fines and restitution for close to 16,000 employees and, through settlements, guaranteeing paid sick leave for thousands more.
JetBlue defended its reputation as a great workplace, noting it’s been voted a top 10 employer by crew members in Forbes magazine in the past.
“We already offer a generous paid time off policy for our crew members that surpasses what the city requires. Additionally, we believe that federal laws governing airlines, railways and interstate commerce supersedes New York’s sick-leave law, which does not take into account the unique characteristics of an airline’s transitory workforce,” JetBlue said.
