AIRLINES SCRUTINIZED

Pros doubt Don’s vows

denied a flight home to New York,” he said. “I had to pay to return home . . . then I was fired.”

Wertman, 41, said he needed to rely on his sick leave several times in the year leading up to his dismissal.

He said Jet Blue told him they did not have to follow the city’s paid-sick-leave law because as a flight attendant, he worked in the air — beyond de Blasio’s jurisdiction.

“I was dumbfounded by that. I said when I called in sick it was from the phone in my New York apartment,” Wertman said.

He protested in writing and in meetings, to no avail, he said.

Wertman was not the only employee fired for calling in sick, Consumer Affairs said.

Ground crew customer service worker Chris Dumpson, 33, who worked for JetBlue for more than 10 years, was also let go.

Dumpson, who said he and other ground crew were talking with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about the possibility of unionizing, often spoke with supervisors to point out their violations of paid sick leave, he said.

He and a group of co-workers even went down to JetBlue headquarters — uninvited — to talk about the problems, he said.

On Oct. 23, he was fired for not completing his minimum required weekly hours, he said.

“It was completely untrue — I had actually worked overtime during that pay period, but I took two sick days that I had in the bank. But the company didn’t pay me for them or credit me for them,” he said.

He told his manager right away that he was being fired because of a clerical error, he said. He also went to JetBlue headquarters to challenge the decision. Ten days later, the company admitted the discrepancy was its error — but sacked Dumpson for insubordination, he said.

If found guilty, JetBlue could have to cough up back pay for fired employees plus fines and additional restitution. For some of the employees, the fine and restitution alone would equal $3,050.

Since the city first established the paid sick-leave law three years ago, Consumer Affairs has closed more than 900 paid-sickleave cases, securing more than $4.9 million in fines and restitution for close to 16,000 employees and, through settlements, guaranteeing paid sick leave for thousands more.

JetBlue defended its reputation as a great workplace, noting it’s been voted a top 10 employer by crew members in Forbes magazine in the past.

“We already offer a generous paid time off policy for our crew members that surpasses what the city requires. Additionally, we believe that federal laws governing airlines, railways and interstate commerce supersedes New York’s sick-leave law, which does not take into account the unique characteristics of an airline’s transitory workforce,” JetBlue said. THE “GREAT Revival” in U.S. manufacturing began Friday, according to President Trump.

But the two executive orders he signed in the Oval Office — meant to improve the U.S. trade deficit — won’t do much to help the economy, experts said.

Trump declared that America’s lost jobs would soon return home.

“The jobs and wealth have been stripped from our country,” he said. “We’re bringing manufacturing and jobs back.”

But the first order — which calls for a detailed report to track trade deficits by country and product — won’t move the needle much, economists said.

The second one — meant to improve America’s collection of duties on imports — appears to duplicate a trade enforcement act signed in 2016 by former President Barack Obama, experts said.

Together the two were little more than symbolic shots at China, just in time for Trump’s sitdown with President Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday.

China accounted for $347 billion of last year’s $502 billion trade deficit.