Alaska Airlines Can’t Arbitrate Flight Attendant’s Leave: 9th Cir.

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant didn’t have to go through a collective bargaining agreement’s grievance and arbitration process to challenge her inability to switch scheduled leave dates to care for a sick child, a divided federal appeals court said.

The Aug. 1 decision by a 6-5 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturns a decision by a three-judge panel of the court. The panel had found that the federal Railway Labor Act required Laura Masserant to arbitrate her dispute. Alaska Airlines brought the federal lawsuit after Masserant complained to a Washington state agency that the CBA’s leave provisions ...