Airline workers’ OT exemption

Delta Airlines employee Brenda Deutsch urged the House Commerce and Regulatory Reform Committee to approve a bill that would allow her to continue voluntarily trading shifts with other employees, so she can care for her ailing husband on weekdays.

Sponsored by Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul), HF571 would allow air carrier employees to trade shifts even if it results in work weeks over 48 hours, which normally require overtime pay under the state’s Fair Labor Act. The committee approved the bill March 1. It goes next to the House floor.

Bill Lentsch, Delta’s senior vice president of Minnesota operations, said the airline’s work week is 80 hours over a two-week period, but that for years employees have enjoyed the flexibility of being able to arrange their schedules to accommodate family needs, other employment or vacations.

Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) wondered what percentage of employees want the exemption.

Lenstch said the same opportunity to trade was in the union contract before employees recently voted to be non-union, and estimated that between 10 percent and 20 percent of employees take advantage of the flexibility. He said he attends frequent town hall-style meetings at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the airline’s Iron Range center to solicit employee feedback.

Deutsch, a 17-year Delta employee, said she has counted on trading shifts to take family summer vacations for years, and more recently, to care for her husband, who has suffered from three strokes. Now, as sole breadwinner and caretaker in her family, she often works double shifts on weekends, and is home with her husband during the week, when she can schedule medical appointments for him.

“The opportunity to trade benefits the employee, not the company,” said Glen Hammond of Hibbing, a Delta employee at the airline’s Iron Range facility. Overtime is still paid in other circumstances, he said.

“It’s considered a perk,” Lillie said.

Sen. Ted Daley (R-Eagan) sponsors a companion, SF488, which awaits action by the Senate Jobs and Economic Growth Committee.