California Senate panel to consider bill cutting break time for flight attendants

The California Senate’s labor committee will consider a bill that would decrease or eliminate in-flight rest and meal breaks for union flight attendants on Thursday.

The bill, S.B. 41, was introduced after the Supreme Court declined to review a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Bernstein v. Virgin America. In that case, a 9th Circuit panel determined that California labor laws related to rest and meal breaks protected flight attendants based in California.

Current labor laws require that transportation employees, including flight attendants, be provided a 30-minute meal period every 5 hours, and 10 minutes of rest time every 4 hours.

S.B. 41 would change that for unionized employees, basing rest and meal periods on the terms of their contracts. Most union contracts make no mention of rest periods, or have periods that are much shorter than would be required under California law.

The Virgin America contract does not require rest or meal breaks, and Bernstein alleges in her lawsuit that “Plaintiffs and other Class members (flight attendants) were not allowed to take rest breaks even when they worked more than four hours.”

The situation is the same for other major airlines that operate in California.

Southwest, which, according to The New York Times, is California’s largest airline, has a flight attendant agreement that makes no provision for in-flight rest or meal periods. Negotiations on updates to the contract have been stalled for the last three years, according to coverage from the Houston Chronicle.

Under United’s contract, flight attendants are given a 15-minute rest period during flights that leave between 9 p.m. and 3:59 a.m. and are between 5 and 7 hours long. California law would require a flight attendant be given a 10-minute rest break and a 30-minute meal break during that same period.

State Sen. Dave Cortese (D-Santa Clara), who chairs the Senate’s Labor, Public Employment and Retirement committee, introduced the bill. Cortese has positioned himself as a labor ally — the California Labor Federation gave him a 100% on their 2022 scorecard, according to Cal Matters. His press releases tout his support for union-backed bills. He co-authored A.B. 1, which would allow employees of the state legislature to form unions.

In 2021, however, Cortese’s re-election committee received $3,000 in campaign contributions from Alaska Airlines, who merged with Virgin America in 2014, according to campaign filings from the California Secretary of State. According to another campaign filing, on May 23, 2022, the day before the U.S. solicitor general filed a brief opposing Virgin America’s appeal in Bernstein, he received an additional $1,000 in contributions from Southwest Airlines.

Cortese has not spoken publicly on the bill — Thursday’s labor committee hearing will likely be the first time he does so. The bill’s final sentence, however, makes an argument for its adoption and the reduction or elimination of in-flight rest breaks; a requirement for "urgency measures," bills that come into effect as soon as they are passed.

It reads, “To protect the public by avoiding disruptions to passenger air travel, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.”