Court: Airline’s workers can’t sue as class in pay dispute
National Court News
American Airlines workers at Newark’s airport who claim in a lawsuit they’ve been shorted on
overtime pay can’t sue as a class, a federal appeals court ruled this week.
The three-judge panel’s decision published Tuesday reversed a New Jersey judge’s ruling that
would have allowed the lawsuit to go forward and include all non-exempt hourly workers
employed at Newark Liberty International Airport since April 2014.
Several employees, including mechanics and workers responsible for tasks such as cargo
handling, filed the suit in 2016 and said American’s timekeeping system automatically paid
employees based on their schedules rather than on the hours they actually worked.
They also alleged managers regularly refused to authorize overtime pay for work performed
before and after scheduled shifts and during scheduled 30-minute lunch breaks. The lawsuit
sought back pay as well as punitive damages. American denied the allegations.
The appeals court sided with the airline, which argued that while the timekeeping system applied
to all employees, it would be wrong to group all employees into a class because it would have to
be determined on a case-by-case basis which employees worked overtime.
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Does a car or truck accident count as a work injury?
If an employee is injured in a car crash while on the job, they are eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. “On the job” injuries are not limited to accidents and injuries that happen inside the workplace, they may also include injuries suffered away from an employee’s place of work while performing a job-related task, such as making a delivery or traveling to a client meeting.
Regular commutes to and from work don’t usually count. If you get into an accident on your way in on a regular workday, it’s probably not considered a work injury for the purposes of workers’ compensation.
If you drive around as part of your job, an injury on the road or loading/unloading accident is likely a work injury. If you don’t typically drive around for work but are required to drive for the benefit of your employer, that would be a work injury in many cases.
If you are out of town for work, pretty much any driving would count as work related. For traveling employees, any accidents or injuries that happen on a work trip, even while not technically working, can be considered a work injury. The reason is because you wouldn’t be in that town in the first place, had you not been on a work trip.
Workers’ compensation claims for truck drivers, traveling employees and work-related injuries that occur away from the job site can be challenging and complex. At Krol, Bongiorno & Given, we understand that many families depend on the income of an injured worker, and we are proud of our record protecting the injured and disabled. We have handled well over 30,000 claims for injured workers throughout the state of Illinois.