A flight attendant who was terminated by Continental Airlines was not an eligible employee under the Family and Medical Leave Act because she did not work enough hours and also failed to establish that she was fired because of her pregnancy in violation of Ohio law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed Jan. 7 (Staunch v. Continental Airlines Inc., 6th Cir., No. 07-3315,1/7/08).
"As an initial matter, a FMLA claim cannot be maintained by a plaintiff who was not an 'eligible employee,' " Judge Cornelia G. Kennedy stated. The airline maintained that Holly Staunch did not work 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding her request for intermittent leave during her pregnancy.
Staunch argued that she worked the necessary hours. She sued the airline for interference and retaliation under the FMLA, for pregnancy bias under Ohio Revised Code §4112.02(A), and for wrongful termination in violation of Ohio's public policy against pregnancy discrimination.
Evidence Disputed
Continental's manager of human resources presented charts showing that Staunch worked 1,127 hours and 41 minutes from Jan. 21, 200l, through Jan. 22, 2002. The calculations were based on Continental's records, factoring in flight time, check-in time, ground time, de-brief time, and training time. Staunch's calculations, based on her own recollections, were presented as an undated list of tasks and hours.
The trial court did not decide whether Staunch worked the required 1,250 hours for Continental. Instead, it assumed that she was an eligible employee and granted summary judgment to the airline on the ground that her interference and retaliation claims had no basis in law. A unanimous appeals panel, however, found that she did not work the requisite hours and, as a result, was not an FMLA "eligible employee."
To determine if an employee worked the requisite 1,250 hours, Kennedy noted, the FMLA directs courts to use the principles employed by the Fair Labor Standards Act to calculate hours. Under the FLSA, she said, if an employer does not maintain an accurate record of hours worked, the employer has the burden of showing that the employee did not work the required hours.
On appeal, Staunch argued that Continental did not "maintain" an accurate record of her actual hours worked. She did not dispute that it kept proper and accurate time records but noted additional duties she had to perform outside of actual flight time and argued that the airline's time records did not accurately reflect the actual time she worked.
"Because some of these duties necessarily must take place outside of the flight hours on which compensation is based, we find that Continental did not 'maintain' a record of the actual hours spent performing these duties," Kennedy said. "Thus, Continental has the burden to prove that Staunch did not work the requisite 1,250 hours."
CBA Requirements
The airline "clearly demonstrated" that Staunch did not work enough hours, the court found.
Continental compiled the pay registers for each flight and added the time required by the collective bargaining agreement for check-in, de-briefing, training time, and ground time. Staunch tried to refute the calculations with her undated, generalized list, but her calculations were unsupported and inflated, Kennedy said.
"Continental's evidence showing that Staunch worked less than the requisite 1,250 stands unrefuted," Kennedy wrote. "Thus, Staunch was not an 'eligible employee' under the FMLA, and her FMLA claims fail as a matter of law."
