American Airlines Training Pay Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Robert Wilhelm has filed a wage and hour class action lawsuit against American Airlines.
- Why: Wilhelm alleges American Airlines fails to adequately pay hourly employees for the time they spend completing mandatory training.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.
American Airlines failed to adequately pay hourly employees for the time they spent completing mandatory training, according to a recent wage and hour class action lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court.
Plaintiff Robert Wilhelm alleges that many hourly American Airlines employees are required to complete quarterly training modules, which typically last about four or five hours each.
However, the employees are expected to complete the training modules after their shifts are complete and they have already clocked out of work, the American Airlines class action lawsuit alleges.
As a result, Wilhelm says many hourly American Airlines employees are not paid for the time they spend on the mandatory training in violation of federal and state wage and hour laws. Some employees must work more than 40 hours in a work week to complete the mandatory training but are not compensated at the overtime rate for their time, Wilhelm alleges.
“[American Airlines] regularly fails to pay plaintiff and other hourly employees for the time they spend completing the quarterly training or pays them their regular hourly pay rate rather than an overtime pay rate, even if plaintiff or other hourly employees have already worked over 40 hours that week,” the class action lawsuit states.
Employees who do not complete the training can face discipline or termination.
Wilhelm says he most recently was expected to complete quarterly training modules during the week of Jan. 31 but was not paid for the time he spent completing them.