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Benefit Snafu For Some NWA Flight Attendants

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Mar 11, 2006 12:41 pm US/Central

Benefit Snafu For Some NWA Flight Attendants

Minneapolis (AP) ― Some Northwest Airlines Corp. flight attendants on furlough since the carrier filed for bankruptcy last fall have been notified that they were wrongly paid unemployment benefits, according to the union representing them.

About 20 flight attendants have called the Professional Flight Attendants Association regarding recent letters canceling their benefits and asking them to pay back as much as $7,000, the union said.

The state determined that the attendants' voluntary, one-year furloughs are the same as leaves of absence, which don't qualify for unemployment benefits in Minnesota. The state reviewed the group after officials realized that some attendants were receiving unemployment benefits while others weren't, said Tom Romens, integrity assurance director for the unemployment insurance at the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.

State law requires repayment of money received in error, even if it was the state's mistake, he said.

The union contends that a voluntary furlough is not the same as a leave. If these 20 attendants appeal and win, it could mean retroactive benefits for the others, said PFAA representative Kathy Dunham.

More than 700 flight attendants took the furloughs. It is unclear how many were denied unemployment benefits.

Meredith Anderson, a flight attendant who is based in the Twin Cities but lives in Mesa, Ariz., appealed after Minnesota demanded repayment of $4,147.

"Before making a decision whether I should just bow out now, I checked with unemployment to see if I would receive benefits," she said. "Because I was told yes, there would be no problems, I made the decision to volunteer for a furlough, because I was only going to go in January anyway."

Anderson said she knew she would be on the chopping block after Northwest said in October that it would cut 1,400 flight attendant jobs by January.

Romens said the department will allow the flight attendants to pay back the money over time.

For some, that was not good enough. Said Anderson: "You wouldn't expect a captain to do a half-baked job in processing flight plans, then put a plane in the air and say, 'Oops, we made a mistake.' "

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Northwest Airlines was founded in 1926, when it began carrying air mail from the Twin Cities to Chicago on a pair of rented, open-cockpit biplanes. The company began transporting ticketed passengers almost a year later.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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