SWA to speed up Airtran integration.....article

[jonjuan]

..............................unregard

 

[Lear70]

Wow... talked to a friend this morning, he said it's on SWALife.

So if you go out on Maternity Leave, that counts against your perfect attendance. Likewise if you get hurt ON THE JOB, it counts against perfect attendance, as does Military Leave (which I'm pretty sure is going to raise some flags, can't discriminate based on military obligation - our military affairs National ALPA guys would be all over this in D.C. if that happened on our side of the partition), and Bereavement leave. So if my child dies, you're going to hose me further? That's SUPER special. :erm:

At least the minimum threshold for Flt Ops is only 76 TFP, not including Vacay.

I agree, getting penalized for being sick, having a child, losing an immediate family member, or going out on Mil leave isn't exactly helping people fly safe by NOT coming to work if they're really ill.

Like I said when all this went down with us 18 months ago, I truly, truly believe Southwest is moving more towards a traditional airline labor relations footing. Everything they have done since then, including the people they have hired to deal with labor issues, policy changes, etc, points to that. Hope I'm wrong... for all our sakes.

 

[Crash Pad]

I went to the message to the field in ATL last year and GK said he was going to do this and the crowd went wild.

Now you're shocked?

 

[Lear70]

I went to the message to the field in ATL last year and GK said he was going to do this and the crowd went wild.

Now you're shocked?

Didn't go to that, had to fly. I supposed I could have called in sick for it and gone...

That said, I don't remember anyone saying on here or the other board that he was going to do SPECIFICALLY this. I mean, seriously, some of those things are contentious legally, Mil Leave, FMLA, Jury Duty (last I heard that was COMPULSORY by the U.S. government) and OJI. Programs with government oversight that may not appreciate having negative action taken against the employee for a Federally-protected program.

I see this getting amended as soon as someone has one of those things, files a formal complaint with the oversight program that they're being penalized, and the company gets compliance forced.

Good idea for EXTRA benefits, bad idea to take something away for the above-mentioned exceptions. Just my .02 cents.

 

[humveedriver]

Read the SWAG blog and some comments under perfect attendance. Thanks to those SWA employees who vehemently support those of us who serve and work for the airlines. I think the concept is good. I haven't supplied an AT buddy pass in years because our route structure wasn't as convenient for my friends and family. So I would have preferred getting cash for uniforms or gifts. Sounds like worst case for reservists is you get 12 passes a year instead of 16. That's if you modify your schedule and don't meet the perfect attendance criteria. You fall into the military appreciation category; which is one pass per drill or annual training. I doubt SWA will get slammed with USERRA non-compliance. Bereavement seems to be a different issue. I like the concept of the rewards program, but still think it encourages people to fly sick, which is not good. I'm still trying to find the 76 TFP information?

 

[humveedriver]

Found the 76 TFP chart. Hopefully the unions band together and fix some of the short comings. As there are some. The minimum TFP is probably geared toward the flight attendants, who were dropping all their trips. Like scoreboard said this is a shotgun blast change in policy where the many pay for the actions of the few. Currently AT crewmembers are not eligible for SWA guest passes (that's the new name). But SWA employees can use their guest passes on AT flights. Thank you sir, may I have another.

 

[SWA Bubba]

It used to be worse.

When I started, it was called an incentive pass program, and it went per quarter. If you had perfect attendance for the entire quarter--no sick leave, maternity, OJI, etc.--then you got two passes (I think they were red back then). One occurrence and you lost out for the quarter.

People complained because of the inherent unfairnes of people who didn't work. We have some 400 flight attendants who don't work at all--they give everything away and/or put money on trips to get rid of them. So we had F/As working 120 tfp/month, every month, and calling in sick for one day who got no passes that quarter; while one of those who didn't work at all, getting their passes because they didn't have any work on their board to call in sick for. So they went to the system that ended this month: you had to work certain number of tfp or hours per quarter (averaging like 75tfp/month, or something, over the quarter), and then you got four passes instead of the old two. They also changed the name to "Buddy passes," and made them purple.

Now it seems like they're combining the two requirements--the old perfect attendance policy plus the newer minimum work requirement. You can still "earn" up to four passes per quarter, but now you can save up the points for when you actually need passes, or use them for other stuff as well. I think the word "incentive" is back in there somewhere.

Bubba

 

[PCL_128]

Blatant violation of FMLA and USERRA. They're just hoping that the unions won't challenge it. And they may be right.

SWAPA needs to get ready to start playing traditional labor relations hardball. The company certainly is.

 

[SWA Bubba]

Found the 76 TFP chart. Hopefully the unions band together and fix some of the short comings. As there are some. The minimum TFP is probably geared toward the flight attendants, who were dropping all their trips. Like scoreboard said this is a shotgun blast change in policy where the many pay for the actions of the few. Currently AT crewmembers are not eligible for SWA guest passes (that's the new name). But SWA employees can use their guest passes on AT flights. Thank you sir, may I have another.

Where did you see this? I've heard in the past, that the company wasn't going to make either side's buddy passes interchangeable with the others. The company even came out and said this with the rationale that it wasn't worth the IT dept's time to change computer code to allow this, because of the "short time" before the companies were merged (seeing as how it takes about 2 years for the IT dept to make anything happen).

Bubba

 

[CaptAntoineMack]

Blatant violation of FMLA and USERRA. They're just hoping that the unions won't challenge it. And they may be right.

SWAPA needs to get ready to start playing traditional labor relations hardball. The company certainly is.

These passes are not a god given right or a negotiated item. It is a company policy they choose to give and legally could just take it all away.

Why do you care anyways? You should be filing out apps or going to school to do whatever it is when you leave Airtran in the next couple of years.

Clocks a ticking.

 

[SWA Bubba]

Blatant violation of FMLA and USERRA. They're just hoping that the unions won't challenge it. And they may be right.

SWAPA needs to get ready to start playing traditional labor relations hardball. The company certainly is.

I dunno; you'd have to ask a lawyer instead of a pilot. Like I said, for the first 30-some odd years this requirement was also there. It's only been the last 5 or 6 or so that it's been totally amount-of-work related without an "perfect attendance" requirement.

I suppose the company's lawyers have already vetted this: saying it's an incentive to come to work, above and beyond any negotiated compensation, and they don't have to give it to anyone in the first place. To this, you'd probably argue that if they "give it to anyone, they have to give it to all," and maybe that might hold up in court. Like I said, ask a lawyer. But I suspect that since no one ever made this argument during the first iteration of the "perfect attendance" requirement, that it passes some legal muster. At any rate, if a court DID side with your lawyer PCL, I bet that the company would just pull the plug on the program, and no one would get anything. After all, it's their incentive program to get people to not miss work. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart because they don't think they're giving us enough compensation.

Bubba

 

[CaptAntoineMack]

I dunno; you'd have to ask a lawyer instead of a pilot. Like I said, for the first 30-some odd years this requirement was also there. It's only been the last 5 or 6 or so that it's been totally amount-of-work related without an "perfect attendance" requirement.

I suppose the company's lawyers have already vetted this: saying it's an incentive to come to work, above and beyond any negotiated compensation, and they don't have to give it to anyone in the first place. To this, you'd probably argue that if they "give it to anyone, they have to give it to all," and maybe that might hold up in court. Like I said, ask a lawyer. But I suspect that since no one ever made this argument during the first iteration of the "perfect attendance" requirement, that it passes some legal muster. At any rate, if a court DID side with your lawyer PCL, I bet that the company would just pull the plug on the program, and no one would get anything. After all, it's their incentive program to get people to not miss work. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart because they don't think they're giving us enough compensation.

Bubba

Much better said than I. You would think a union goon would easily understand this concept. I am glad he won't be representing my interests.

 

[humveedriver]

Where did you see this? I've heard in the past, that the company wasn't going to make either side's buddy passes interchangeable with the others. The company even came out and said this with the rationale that it wasn't worth the IT dept's time to change computer code to allow this, because of the "short time" before the companies were merged (seeing as how it takes about 2 years for the IT dept to make anything happen).

Bubba

Swalife/swag faqs .pdf/ question 8.0


Can I use my guest pass on SWA or AT?

Both...

 

[PCL_128]

These passes are not a god given right or a negotiated item. It is a company policy they choose to give and legally could just take it all away.

Yes, they can certainly take it away from everyone if they choose. And if they do, I would have no complaint. It would be SWAPA's fault for not negotiating the benefit into their CBA in the first place.

But what they can't do is treat someone differently based upon their use of FMLA or military leave.

 

[SWA Bubba]

Swalife/swag faqs .pdf/ question 8.0


Can I use my guest pass on SWA or AT?

Both...

Thanks! Took me a while to find this, including reading TWO sets of FAQs. This of course, begs the question: "Why in the world is anyone at Southwest IT wasting any work time on doing anything OTHER than getting the new reservation system in place?!!"

Bubba

 

[SWA Bubba]

Yes, they can certainly take it away from everyone if they choose. And if they do, I would have no complaint. It would be SWAPA's fault for not negotiating the benefit into their CBA in the first place.

But what they can't do is treat someone differently based upon their use of FMLA or military leave.

Like I said, I'm not a lawyer... I just gave my opinion based on past practices. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

Bubba

 

[humveedriver]

Thanks! Took me a while to find this, including reading TWO sets of FAQs. This of course, begs the question: "Why in the world is anyone at Southwest IT wasting any work time on doing anything OTHER than getting the new reservation system in place?!!"

Bubba

Because they can run "world of Warcraft" and write the code for the guest passes simultaneously. Working on the reservation system doesn't allow for running multiple programs.

 

[Lear70]

Swalife/swag faqs .pdf/ question 8.0


Can I use my guest pass on SWA or AT?

Both...

Wow. Maybe we should ask if they can use their Buddy Passes on US, if we can finally use our benefits on THEM.

Supposed to be a "streamlined" policy...

But what they can't do is treat someone differently based upon their use of FMLA or military leave.

Correct.

Doesn't matter if it's a negotiated item or a company policy, FMLA and USERRA don't make that distinction. It'll get changed to comply, just a matter of someone filing the complaint eventually.

It irritates me that they've changed the buddy pass program for SWA employees to travel on AirTran, but not vice-versa. That's not a computer programming issue if it can be used on us. I'm guessing it's part of the code-share changes that allow tickets to be sold interchangeably that also allows the Buddy Pass to be electronically processed, which means it WILL work both ways... if they want it to.

 

[slaquer5]

Blatant violation of FMLA and USERRA. They're just hoping that the unions won't challenge it. And they may be right.

SWAPA needs to get ready to start playing traditional labor relations hardball. The company certainly is.

Dude you kill me.

Someone with only a HS diploma ranting about law and torts.

My question is, do you actually believe what you spew?

 

[GoodTimes]

"SWAPA needs to get ready to start playing traditional labor relations hardball."

PCL


Lame