In the News: Transportation cases to watch in 2019

Los Angeles partner 

Kenneth Sulzer provided insight on the United and Delta wage settlement suits pertaining to how a state’s minimum wage laws apply to pilots and flight attendants mostly working out of state. The California Supreme Court is working on clarifying how the state’s minimum wage law and labor codes apply to airline compliance with wage-and-hour laws across state lines, including wage statements given by out-of-state employers to employees who don’t principally work in California but who reside and get paid there.

In deciding just how far-reaching the Golden State's wage laws really are — especially for airlines, railroads and motor carriers that operate nationally or any other transportation companies that might have tenuous connections to California — the state Supreme Court will determine whether companies must brace for additional compliance headaches that could come with a patchwork of state wage statement statutes. 

“California is very specific and very onerous in what has to be in a wage statement, and there’s an epidemic of wage statement class actions in California and this will simply exacerbate it if the court says, 'Look, you work four hours in California on a stopover and your wage statement now has to comply with California law.' It's fraught with peril," Sulzer said.

Sulzer told Law360 it would "make no sense" and be incredibly burdensome for airlines or any other company to have to comply with California wage statement requirements for employees who only spend a few hours a week in the state.

Law360 subscribers may view the full article here.