Labor Officials Suing Northwest Over Hiring Fee

California labor authorities sued Northwest Airlines on Thursday, accusing the carrier of illegally charging job candidates $25 apiece to process their applications.

The suit, while only moderately noteworthy in terms of labor-law enforcement, quickly triggered sparks in California politics: It was filed by the administration of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson against a company that until recently was co-chaired by Al Checchi, a Democratic gubernatorial hopeful.

While the Checchi camp contended that the litigation was politically motivated, Wilson administration officials denied that charge and said they were legally obligated to bring the case. They said they brought the alleged violation to the company’s attention months ago, and filed suit only after Northwest failed to act.

“There’s a requirement by the Labor Commissioner to enforce California labor law,” said Sean Walsh, spokesman for the governor, who is not seeking reelection. “The labor commissioner’s office has received complaints, and they’re merely acting on those complaints. Election be damned. The law must be enforced.”

State officials maintain that the practice of collecting application fees violated a section of the California labor code that states no employer “shall compel or coerce any employee or applicant for employment to patronize his employer or any other person in the purchase [of] anything of value.”

Filed late in the day in Superior Court in San Francisco, the suit seeks a permanent injunction to block the practice. It also seeks reimbursement, with interest, for an undetermined number of California job candidates who applied for work at Northwest from January 1995 to the present.

The suit does not name Checchi, who stepped down as Northwest’s co-chairman last April to pursue his gubernatorial bid and remains on the Minneapolis-based company’s board of directors. Checchi had been chairman or co-chairman of Northwest since 1989, when he and a partner, Gary Wilson, took over the company.

In his campaign, Checchi has portrayed himself as a skillful business executive who turned around Northwest and saved it from bankruptcy. Critics have charged that the Beverly Hills businessman nearly drove the carrier into bankruptcy but was rescued by workers who agreed to accept major pay cuts in exchange for stock.

“The target of the suit is not Northwest Airlines, it’s Al Checchi,” said his campaign manager, Darry Sragow. “Northwest Airlines, along with most of the industry . . . charges applicants for pilot and flight attendant openings a nominal fee of $25 to weed out the wackos.

“Pilots and flight attendants are responsible for human lives and before being hired are subjected to very extensive security checks, which cost the airlines a great deal of money,” said Sragow. “This fee doesn’t come close to covering the costs of those extensive checks. It is simply used to weed out people who aren’t serious or who shouldn’t be applying.”

Northwest last talked with state labor officials about the matter in June and never received an explanation as to why the practice was illegal, said company spokesman Jon Austin. “We feel we have acted completely legally and properly, and we don’t think the state has been forthcoming in explaining why they think otherwise.”

State officials, however, said they charged Northwest because they received several complaints about the airline’s practice. They said that if complaints are filed against other air carriers for the same violation, they will pursue them as well.

Those officials pointed out that the labor commissioner’s office previously sued Reno Air on allegations that it illegally required employees to pay for their uniforms. Officials said the case with Reno was resolved a year ago, when the company agreed to a $25,000 settlement.