That's No Tip, That's A Service Charge. No, That's A Rip Off And This Is A Lawsuit.
MayorBob.
Posted to Legal on Wed Dec 27, 2006 at 03:29:56 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
When you're a part of the service industry where tipping is part of the deal, those tips make up for what is typically a reduced minimum wage. So it has been for the skycaps working American Airlines flights out of Boston's Logan Airport. Their (US)$2.63 per hour wage was nicely increased by the $1 to $2 a bag tip that flyers used to tip them. But, things change in life and so it is with skycap fees and American Airlines at Logan. The airline began charging passengers a fee for baggage checked with the skycaps. Only thing is, according to the skycaps, they didn't make it clear to the passengers that the fee was going to the airline and not to the skycaps and the passengers stopped tipping the skycaps. The skycaps say this is unfair and they're tired of complaining to the airline about it, so they've filed a class-action lawsuit against the airline for their economic loss.
Actually, the lawsuit (pdf doc) is filed against American and G2 Secure Staff. The airline contracts with G2 to provide the skycaps at Logan. In the aftermath of September 11th, 2001 airlines went into crisis mode, with many of them in and out of bankruptcy since. American aggressively began a campaign designed to cut costs or increase revenues. Things such as removal of pillows and blankets and charging for meals became realities for the flying public. One stratagem American came upon was to institute a $2 per bag fee paid to the skycap at the terminal when bags were checked aboard. The fee went directly to American's corporate coffers and not into the skycaps' pockets. According to the complaint, this was never made clear to the passengers who thought they were still tipping the skycaps. In spite of the fact that the skycaps' hourly salary was increased to $5 per hour (closer to Massachusett's minimum wage of $6.75 per hour), the fact was that passengers were no longer tipping for the privilege of the bag check, ergo the skycaps weren't being paid the minimum wage.
Reports in the media show that, even though skycaps were paid less than the minimum wage under the old system, the tips made for a nice annual wage in most cases. According to Shannon Liss-Riordan, the skycaps' attorney, what American is doing is taking advantage of some very hard workers to help buttress its bottom line:"American Airlines is turning to some of its lowest-paid workers to help defray the costs of its business. The skycaps are hard workers; they hustle and they work hard for their tips to provide service to passengers to make it a little easier before they try to catch a flight. And American Airlines, in trying to save some money . . . is taking the tips out of their pockets."
This isn't the way American sees it, of course. According to Tim Smith, a spokesperson for the airline, the fee is in general use wherever American flies except for smaller airports where the airline is sharing skycap services with other lines. Smith said: "The $2 charge is not a tip, in our estimation. It is a service charge for those who choose to use the convenience of this service . . . and customers who use this service are still free to tip above any service fee if they want to." The airline said it was aware that tips dropped off "for a few months" after the fees were installed but "returned to customary levels three or four weeks after the fee was implemented." That's not the way Don DiFiore sees it. He's one of the lead plaintiffs in the case and he says customers are "still confused" and his economic loss amounts to "a couple hundred dollars a week" as a result. DiFiore said:"They know we make tips and a lot of times they think they're tipping me, but they really aren't. So from my perspective I'm handing in my tip money."
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