Horizon Air Industries and Alaska Airlines are facing a class action lawsuit led by a former employee over wage and hour complaints — issues that previously won workers more than $31 million in court from the airlines’ parent company.
The lawsuit, filed to Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, is brought by a man who worked as a ground service agent for Horizon, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, from 2020 to 2022. The former worker alleged the companies failed to pay employees for time worked, violated meal and break requirements and provided inaccurate wage statements, according to court documents.
Horizon and Alaska required employees to complete work tasks off-the-clock and delayed, interrupted, or cut short their meal periods to continue working, the lawsuit said.
The plaintiff also alleged that there was no legally-compliant rest policy in writing or practice that was made known to employees, in violation of state law mandating that employers give a 10-minute rest period every four work hours.
The filing states that the plaintiff is seeking to represent all current and former non-exempt employees that worked for Horizon and Alaska in California within the past four years. He requested a trial by jury.
The plaintiff did not respond to a request for comment. Alaska Air Group also did not respond to a request for comment.
Alaska Air Group has been embroiled in a legal battle over a similar wage-and-hour case in the past. A lawsuit filed more than a decade ago against Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, another sister airline owned by Alaska Air Group, eventually forced the company to pay California flight attendants over $77 million in damages and penalties in 2019. A federal judge reduced the award sum to $31 million in 2023.
The case shared some of the same complaints as the current one, accusing the airlines of failing to pay them for all hours worked, pay overtime premiums and provide complete wage statements.