Allegiant Air’s flight attendants union is asking the state to investigate the company’s compliance with Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act.
The Transport Workers Union of America Local 577 said Tuesday it has sent letters to Hawaii officials alleging that Allegiant is attempting to skirt the state’s health care law by hiring only part-time flight attendants to staff the new Honolulu base while the pilots based here will be full time.
Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act requires employers to provide health insurance to any employee who works at least 20 hours per week for four consecutive weeks. To avoid the high cost of health insurance, some companies prefer to use part-time workers.
At Allegiant bases on the mainland, flight attendants are considered full time and receive health insurance if they are available to work 75 hours a month, the union said. Allegiant, which has nearly 600 flight attendants, said it doesn’t need full-time flight attendants in Hawaii, so it will hire part-timers only and will not offer health insurance to them.
The union said it sent letters this week to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka and U.S. Reps. Mazie Hirono and Colleen Hanabusa, asking them to look into Allegiant’s plan to use only part-time flight attendants and not offer them health insurance.
The union says it is unlikely flight attendants based in Hawaii will work less than 20 hours per week.
"A round-trip flight to or from the mainland gives you a schedule of nearly 14 hours not including the many unpaid hours a flight attendant accrues due to delays. Unless the company schedules flight attendants one day a week, there is no way for them to work less than 20 hours," said Debra Petersen-Barber, an Allegiant flight attendant who is lead negotiator for TWU Local 577.
Allegiant spokeswoman Jessica Wheeler said the company is not "skirting the law" and said the company has obtained guidance from the state to ensure compliance with its legal obligations.
"Allegiant is new to the Honolulu market, and given our current level of operations, part-time flight attendants allow us to meet our operational needs while maintaining the low costs that allow us to offer customers low fares," Wheeler said. The decision to hire all part-timers is an operational decision that has nothing to do with health insurance, Wheeler said.
"We have been pleased to see plenty of local interest in the part-time jobs we offer, and believe that we offer a win-win opportunity for our part-time flight attendants," Wheeler added.
Petersen-Barber wrote in the letter that the union was requesting an investigation of the situation to ensure that any part-time flight attendant positions created by Allegiant "comply with the letter and spirit of Hawaii state law."
Allegiant flight attendants voted in December 2010 to be represented by Local 577, but the union has not yet reached an agreement with Allegiant on a contract.
Walter Kawamura, administrator of the Disability Compensation Division for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said he hadn’t seen the letter yet and couldn’t say whether the case would warrant an investigation. However, he said the state has no jurisdiction over a contract between the union and the employer that is reached via collective bargaining.
"Whenever you have an employer and a union that are going to enter a collective bargaining agreement, they can bargain for whatever they want, and basically Section 393-19 of the Prepaid Health Care Act states that we cannot get involved," Kawamura said. "Whatever the union and the employer agree to is what it is, and we cannot step in and force them to give health insurance."
