Delta Air Lines Failed to Pay Employees Overtime For Swapped Shifts, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action accuses Delta Air Lines of breaching its contract with employees by failing to pay overtime wages when they swap shifts with colleagues.

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The 17-page lawsuit claims that when an employee “swaps off” and a colleague works their scheduled shift, and the employee then picks up later work on a scheduled day off, Delta denies the worker overtime pay even though they have worked over 40 hours in that period. By doing so, Delta’s pay system “subtly penalizes employees for swapping shifts,” the suit alleges.

Under the terms of Delta’s overtime contract, swapped shifts do not count towards overtime thresholds, the case says. The complaint argues that specifically, the breach of contract occurs during “swap off” periods, when an employee has “swapped off” and a colleague has taken their scheduled shift.

Per the filing, in work periods in which an employee has “swapped off” and later picked up another’s shift during scheduled time off, Delta has failed to pay them overtime even though the contract states that workers are entitled to overtime for “the time required to be worked on scheduled days off, provided the scheduled days have been worked during the preceding work period.”

The lawsuit claims that “for the purposes of calculating overtime, Delta treats the swapped off shift as unpaid time off despite the fact that Delta receives employee labor for the swapped off shift from the colleague who swaps on.”

The plaintiff, a Delta employee residing in Georgia, says he was denied overtime for a shift he picked up in addition to his regularly scheduled hours in October 2022. The suit alleges that even though all the man’s scheduled shifts and days had been worked in the relevant pay period, the company paid him his regular rate for the extra shift rather than the overtime rate outlined in the contract.

“[The plaintiff] is just one of thousands of Delta employees to have seen the size of their paychecks diminished by this subtle practice,” the case argues.

The lawsuit looks to represent any current or former Delta employee who was governed by the company’s overtime contract and not paid overtime rates for work performed during scheduled time off in work periods in which they swapped off some or all of their scheduled hours.

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