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Law360 (May 19, 2020, 8:33 PM EDT) -- Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia have urged the Ninth Circuit to uphold a federal judge's ruling that the state of Washington's paid sick leave law applies to airline employees, saying the law is more important than ever during the coronavirus crisis.
The 19 attorneys general, who represent blue states such as Massachusetts and purple states such as Michigan, said the Evergreen State's airline employees deserve the same paid sick leave access as other Washington-based workers — especially because their jobs make them particularly susceptible to COVID-19.
"The benefits of [paid sick leave] laws are all the more urgently needed in the context of air travel, which accelerates the rapid spread of infectious diseases," the attorneys general wrote in their amicus brief filed Monday. "Air travel has undoubtedly accelerated the global spread of COVID-19."
Massachusetts' attorney general, Maura Healey, said in a statement Monday that airline workers "need to be able to stay home when they are sick to recover and stop the spread of serious illnesses like COVID-19 to their families, coworkers and the public."
"We filed this brief because these workers have a right to paid time off without risking their livelihoods," Healey said.
Washington's paid sick leave law went into effect in early 2018. In February of that year, the lobbying group for the U.S.'s largest airlines sued the state's labor agency, seeking to block the paid sick leave law from being enforced on flight crew members, including pilots and flight attendants.
The group, Airlines for America, lost the case in October. U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton ruled that the state law's health benefits for workers outweighed any speculative burdens on interstate commerce.
His ruling granted a bid for a pre-trial win filed by Washington's labor agency, the Department of Labor and Industries, and a union representing flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America AFL-CIO, which intervened in the case.
Airlines for America appealed in November, according to court documents.
Aside from the jurisdictions listed, the states responsible for Monday's amicus brief are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia.
The Association of Flight Attendants' general counsel, Ed Gilmartin, said in a statement Tuesday that the union is pleased to have the support of the attorneys general in its fight to get the paid sick leave law enforced for flight crew. Gilmartin said the attorneys general "persuasively document the numerous ways in which paid sick leave laws advance essential public health objectives and protect workers."
"Those legal protections are more urgent than ever in the current pandemic," Gilmartin said. "The airline industry should not be able to exempt itself of those legal obligations and risk the spread of infectious disease through commercial air travel. That's not how we're going to get our economy moving again."
The Washington State Attorney General's Office, which is representing the state's labor agency in the case, declined to comment Tuesday. Counsel and representatives for Airlines for America and representatives for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Airlines for America is represented by Harry J.F. Korrell, Rebecca J. Francis and John Hodges-Howell of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and Robert A. Siegel, Kristin MacDonnell, Jason Zarrow, Anton Metlitsky and Adam P. KohSweeney of O'Melveny & Myers LLP.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and its director, Joel Sacks, are represented by James Mills, Katy Dixon, Anastasia Sandstrom and Robert W. Ferguson of the Washington Attorney General's Office.
The intervenor Association of Flight Attendants is represented by Kathleen Phair Barnard, Darin M. Dalmat and Kelly Ann Skahan of Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt LLP.
The amicus states and Washington, D.C., are represented by their respective attorneys general.
The case is Airlines for America v. Sacks et al., case number 19-35937, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
--Additional reporting by Linda Chiem and Adam Lidgett. Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
