Class Action Alleges Air France Deprived New York Workers of Timely Wages

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A former employee has filed a proposed class action against Societe Air France over alleged New York Labor Law (NYLL) violations.

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The 16-page case claims the international airline has unlawfully paid airport operations associates, passenger service agents, cargo associates, ramp service agents, mechanics and engineers in New York bi-weekly instead of weekly. The lawsuit further alleges that Air France has failed to provide employees with uniform maintenance compensation or one additional hour’s pay at the minimum wage for days they worked shifts lasting longer than 10 hours.

According to the suit, the NYLL requires an employer to pay on a weekly basis manual workers who perform physical labor at least 25 percent of the time. The plaintiff, a former Air France passenger service agent at JFK International Airport, says she spent over a quarter of her shifts performing physical tasks like lifting, weighing and transferring luggage but consistently received her paycheck every two weeks.

“Plaintiff and other ‘manual workers’ … need to be paid weekly to keep up with day to day [sic] expenses such as housing and transportation costs, groceries, utilities, and other regular bills, and in order to obtain the full value of their earned wages as due,” the filing states, adding that New York’s high cost of living places another financial burden on Air France manual workers, who are paid wages at or near the minimum hourly rate.

The plaintiff claims that Air France’s allegedly improper compensation policies have caused her to pay bills late on more than one occasion and hindered her ability to save, invest and plan for the future. 

“Defendant reaped billions in annual revenue from its customers as a direct result of its Manual Workers’ labor while unlawfully withholding from and paying late its employees who are least able to weather these unjust delays,” the suit scathes.

Moreover, the case alleges that the airline has run afoul of the New York Code of Rules and Regulations by requiring employees to wear a uniform each shift without cleaning or offering to clean the uniform, or covering the cost of uniform maintenance beyond one initial dry cleaning. Instead, workers are forced to spend their own money and time off the clock to wash, iron, dry clean, alter or repair their own uniforms, the complaint claims.

Although the NYLL states that non-exempt employees are entitled to one additional hour of pay if their total workday exceeds 10 hours, the plaintiff says she was frequently required to work overtime and shifts as long as 18 hours without extra wages pursuant to the state’s “spread of hours of pay” rule, the suit contends. The lawsuit also notes that the airline generally did not pay the plaintiff time-and-a-half wages for every hour worked over 40 per week.

Finally, the suit claims that Air France, who reportedly employs more than 38,000 people worldwide, has failed to provide employees with wage statements, in violation of the NYLL. According to the filing, the plaintiff and other similarly situated workers are entitled to $50 for each day the defendant did not provide wage notices, or $5,000 each.

The lawsuit looks to represent all non-exempt persons employed by Air France in New York as manual workers who were paid on a bi-weekly basis within the past six years.

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