PHOENIX — More employees are coming forward and filing retaliation complaints in Arizona against Southwest Airlines, claiming they received warning letters in their personnel files after taking earned sick time.
Twenty-two employees have filed retaliation complaints with the Industrial Commission of Arizona’s Labor Department since December 2022. The combined fines now total $702,300.
Southwest Airlines is appealing the fines.
The ABC15 Investigators were the first to report on these fines, listening to workers who say they are being unfairly targeted.
The complaints are all similar: Aircraft mechanic workers said they were given warnings in their personnel files that they could be fired after they used the sick time they earned.
Rui Leonardo, president of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 32, told ABC15 that many of the workers are older and have accrued their sick time over several years.
Some workers have earned more than 700 hours of sick time, “thus showing they were not abusing their sick time,” he said.
When the employees exceeded nine sick days within 12 months, they said they got letters in their personnel file, warning about excessive absences.
“So Southwest is giving us a benefit that we cannot use,” he said.
The Industrial Commission’s Labor Department has investigated the complaints and has sided with the employees. The department said Southwest Airlines is subject to the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, a ballot initiative passed by Arizona voters in 2016. The law requires employers to provide paid sick leave and makes it illegal to retaliate against them for using that accrued leave.
Southwest, however, contends it provides a sick leave policy that is more generous than the Act mandates, and that discipline beyond the protected leave cannot be considered retaliation.
In a statement to ABC15, Southwest Airlines said it strongly disagrees with the Industrial Commission’s application of the law.
“It is important to note that none of the Employees involved lost their jobs. Instead, after they greatly exceeded 40 hours of sick leave use in a year, the Employees merely received written warnings that their attendance needs to improve,” the statement said.
The statement goes on to say, “Taken to its logical conclusion, the Commission’s position would mean that employers in Arizona cannot apply any type of attendance policy, no matter how generous. Southwest will continue to appeal for these fines to be rescinded.”
An administrative law judge is reviewing Southwest Airline’s appeal.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
