Last week Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced legislation that would close a Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) loophole for airline pilots and flight attendants. The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act (S. 1422) would change the hours of service requirements to enable more airline industry employees to take FMLA leave. On February 9 of this year, the House passed by voice vote a nearly identical bill (H.R. 912).

As the law currently stands, employees are eligible to take FMLA leave if they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12 months, which amounts to at least 60 percent of a standard 40-hour workweek. This method of calculation impacts employees in the airline industry, whose time spent on the job between flights or on mandatory standby does not count as “hours worked” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which the courts use to determine the requisite number of hours for FMLA purposes. This bill would clarify that the hours pilots or flight attendants work or for which they are paid – not just those spent in flight – count toward the minimum hours calculation. Specifically, an airline flight crew member would be eligible to take FMLA leave if he or she had worked or been paid for 60 percent of the applicable monthly guarantee, or the equivalent amount annualized over the preceding 12-month period, and if he or she had worked or been paid for at least 504 hours during the previous 12-month period.

This bill, which is co-sponsored by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Kit Bond (R-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Jim Webb (D-VA), has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.