Flight School Doubles Down On Labor Violations

As if flight training school ATP didn’t treat its CFIs wrongly enough by not paying them for overtime and other work they performed, the school allegedly had the gall to fire those who opted to join a lawsuit against it and explicitly stated the only way to get rehired is to withdraw from the case.

Getman, Sweeney,& Dunn (GSD), the law firm representing the instructors, said they filed the lawsuit against ATP in June 2024 for misclassifying its flight instructors as independent contractors instead of employees and failed to pay them all they were due. ATP did not pay them the time-and-a-half overtime rate even above 40 hours per week, nor were they paid for ground training not associated with a specific flight.

GSD brought the suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and also under wage payment laws in 26 states as well as under overtime pay laws in 14 states. It subsequently filed an amended suit to include the state law offenses.

On September 9, ATP fired at least 13 instructors who opted in to the nationwide collective action when it received notice of the amended lawsuit. The school explicitly stated the terminations were because of their participation in the suit. The illegal action has caused immediate harm to the instructors involved, as they are unable to meet their current living expenses or continue their careers.

As a result, GSD immediately contacted ATP and when they were unable to reach the school’s lawyers, filed an Emergency Motion with the court for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction. The firm requested the court to order ATP to stop its retaliatory actions and grant immediate relief to, among others, require ATP to rescind the terminations, stop asking Plaintiff instructors to dismiss pending wage claims, take instructors off of “flight holds” because of their participation, and to pay the lost wages, liquidated damages, and court costs and attorneys fees.

We’ll see how this turns out for ATP and the mistreated instructors. ATP has yet to respond to our inquiries about this matter. More details to come... 

FMI:  getmansweeney.com/