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A group of former Spirit Airlines employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the airline in bankruptcy court, claiming they were terminated without the notice required by federal law and have yet to receive their owed wages and benefits, reported Telemundo 51.
Many of the plaintiffs are residents of South Florida.
The legal action was filed on May 12 and is being processed as a class action in bankruptcy court, as Spirit had previously sought Chapter 11 protection.
The lawsuit claims that the airline violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, known as the WARN Act, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide a 60-day notice for any mass layoffs.
Attorney Eric Lechtzin, who represents the former employees, explained the scope of the claim: "We are suing, first and foremost, for 60 days of unpaid wages, which is essentially a penalty for not providing notice before the company's closure under the 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act."
The claim is not limited to salaries. Lechtzin detailed that it also seeks to recover full labor benefits.
"In addition to the 60 days of salary, we are also seeking 60 days of employee benefits, which would include the continuation of health coverage, retirement contributions, that sort of thing. Finally, we are trying to recover accumulated and unused vacation and sick leave," he detailed.
The closure of Spirit occurred abruptly on May 2 at 3:00 AM, when the airline canceled all its flights following the failure of a $500 million government bailout negotiated with the Trump administration.
The collapse left nearly 17,000 employees unemployed overnight, and their health insurance expired that very day.
The impact in South Florida was especially severe. More than 3,260 workers lost their jobs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties: 2,529 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 551 at the Spirit Support Center in Dania Beach, and 181 at Miami International Airport.
In the state of Florida, layoffs exceeded 4,850 workers, according to official notices filed with FloridaCommerce on May 6.
Lechtzin emphasized the distress experienced by many of his constituents due to the sudden loss of medical coverage: "They tell me that they have chronic medical conditions or family members with medical issues and they don't know what they are going to do about their medical coverage. They are desperately seeking help."
The lawyer also warned that the lawsuit could be expanded if the outstanding final payments are not resolved. Spirit filed for bankruptcy in November 2024 and again in August 2025, accumulating losses exceeding 2.5 billion dollars since 2020.
The 95% increase in aviation fuel prices, stemming from the military conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran that started on February 28, 2026, was one of the factors that led to the final collapse.
The airline did not respond to requests for comments regarding the lawsuit.
Lechtzin summarized the magnitude of the problem with a striking figure: "We have 17,000 people who are now unemployed and without medical benefits, and they are struggling to get by."
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