Flying Food fined $1.2 million for lag in rehiring laid off workers

Calfornia regulators have issued a $1.2 million citation to Flying Food Group, alleging the airline catering company was slow to recall 21 workers who were laid off during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic once business picked up again.

The state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement said the company, which services several airlines at LAX, failed to properly recall the employees in order of their hire date at its Inglewood and San Francisco facilities, in violation of Senate Bill 93.

Signed into law in 2021, SB 93 provides job protection for some 700,000 airline catering workers, cooks, housekeepers and waiters across California who were laid off during the health crisis.

“This law was intended to end the displacement of workers during the pandemic due to no fault of their own, and that’s exactly what we are pursuing in this case,” Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement.

Representatives with Flying Food could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Sonia Ceron, a dishwasher with the company, was laid off in February 2020 and eventually brought back — but not until August 2022. The 35-year-old Inglewood resident said Flying Food could have recalled her much sooner but opted instead to hire new workers.

All of the Unite Here Local 11-represented workers were eventually returned to their jobs, but the union said they should have been brought back when business recovered.

As a single mother with a 10-year-old, Ceron said being laid off for 2 ½ years was tough.

“I took a couple of fast-food jobs during that time to bring in some income, but it wasn’t enough and my rent was too high so I had to move,” she said. “I felt let down by the company, but I feel like the citation is justice.”

Additional violations

Flying Food has been cited for a variety of other labor violations over the past 12 months, the union said.

Earlier this month, Cal/OSHA issued six citations for health and safety violations. In one citation, the agency said the company failed to ensure all required exits were unobstructed in case of an emergency.

That citation came in response to a Cal/OSHA complaint filed by four workers who alleged that on Feb. 2 management locked multiple exit doors — including one that was secured with a metal plate — the same day employees planned to picket the facility for higher wages.

Earlier that day, employees noticed the company had hired additional security guards. And the dispatch door, which serves as an exit for staff working in the receiving area, storeroom and kitchen areas, was being bolted shut, the complaint said.

“One of the first things I noticed was heightened security,” said Gary Duplessis, a cook at the facility and one of the complainants. “I’d never seen that amount of security until that morning. I mean, what did they think we were gonna’ do … storm the Capitol?”

In a statement issued shortly after that incident, Flying Food said Los Angeles County fire officials did a full inspection of the building and found no safety violations.

The California Highway Patrol also cited the company for its failure to properly inspect and maintain vehicles, the union said. The Bureau of Contract Administration, which enforces the city’s living wage ordinance, found Flying Food and its subcontractors in violation of the minimum wage on at least four occasions over the past year.