Oppressive new ranking for flight attendants hits turbulence in California

American Airlines is facing backlash after rolling out a new employee scoring system that critics say keeps tabs on flight attendants’ every move — from passenger reviews to their activity on Microsoft Teams — igniting accusations of workplace surveillance and putting California’s tough privacy laws in the spotlight.The Me@Work program, launched in April, tracks a year’s worth of employee data before generating individual scores, according to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union representing the carrier’s flight attendants.American has told the union the platform is meant to help employees monitor their performance and development, not serve as a disciplinary tool.But that explanation hasn’t quieted critics.The score pulls from a long list of workplace metrics, including passenger satisfaction surveys, attendance, operational performance, flight-attendant-related delays, compliance with company procedures, Microsoft Teams usage, electronic flight bag compliance and how quickly incident reports are filed.Flight attendants argue many of those measurements are influenced by factors they can’t control.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story A poor passenger survey, for example, could reflect a delayed flight, faulty Wi-Fi, catering problems or a dirty aircraft rather than the performance of the cabin crew.Workers have also questioned how the airline calculates “operational contribution” and whether system-wide disruptions could unfairly drag down individual scores.The union is also demanding more transparency about how the ratings are created and what information feeds into them, arguing employees should be able to review and challenge data that could affect their records.The fight has drawn particular atte...