Delta: Aid means it can’t fire workers, but it can cut hours

Delta is defending itself against Democratic accusations that it’s violating a $2 trillion coronavirus relief law by cutting workers’ hours, saying it is “in full compliance” with the law.

Delta CEO Edward H. Bastian defended the airline in a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week, saying the company is attempting to preserve jobs after money from the law dries up at the end of September.

“Even after September, my goal is to keep furloughs to a minimum and avoid them entirely if possible,” Bastian wrote in the May 29 letter. “To achieve this goal, we are working across all divisions of the company to spread the reduced work available among as many people as possible, thereby protecting jobs.”

The company has been criticized for cutting hours after receiving $5.4 billion in assistance from the law, out of $25 billion given to airlines, to keep carriers from laying off workers because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Delta argues that cutting hours is different from cutting pay, but Democrats aren’t buying it: On May 20, Warren, D-Mass., and 12 other Democratic senators argued in a letter to Bastian that the two actions are equivalent.

“Congress included this provision to prevent airline employees from suffering a reduction in pay or benefits after airline companies received billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts — funding which was calculated based on your payroll. But a reduction in pay, via a forced reduction in hours, is exactly what you have imposed,” they wrote.

Bastian said though the payroll support was welcome, “those funds alone are not nearly enough to sustain our business through the pandemic.”