What's your airline's sick policy?

[Abernathy]

I'll go first: ASA has a strong punitive sick policy:

Max 3 sick calls in 6 months = "verbal warning" letter/email

Max 4 sick calls in 12 months= same as above

5 sick calls in 12 months will get a written letter in your file
6 sick calls in 12 months may lead to termination


Wondering what others look like. The apologists will say "just get it FMLA'd" not thinking that it costs money to go to the doctor and have him fill all that crap out.

On a side note, ASA's FMLA paperwork is handled by Ford and Harrison law firm, the one that we sit across from during contract negotiations. Maybe with some help from the XJET guys, we can get that stuff changed.

 

[Nevets]

4 in rolling 12 months: written verbal warning
5 in rolling 12 months: written warning
6 in rolling 12 months: termination warning
7 in rolling 12 months: termination
Sick calls do not count with doctor's note
Each sick call can only go maximum of 14 days
FMLA can be a pain
We do have emergency and bearevement leave as well that doesn't count towards sick calls
I've even seen them give management drops when circumstances dictate but it's not contractual
No fault fatigue policy (file ASAP): paid out of sick bank

 

[PapaSiera]

4 in rolling 12 months: written verbal warning
5 in rolling 12 months: written warning
6 in rolling 12 months: termination warning
7 in rolling 12 months: termination
Sick calls do not count with doctor's note

The most important thing is that XJT sick calls DO NOT count at all if you bring a doctors note. (UNLIMITED)

We also acrue 5 hrs in our sick bank every month.

 

[Erlanger]

Skywest policy is no limit to how often you can call in sick. Crew support may not question you in any way or make judgment as to the validity of your sick claim. (I've stopped explaining to them why I'm sick and simply say I'm sick today and won't be coming in. They say thanks for the call and get better. The call is over.)

If you are out sick for more than 3 consecutive days your Chief Pilot "may" ask you for a doctor's note and you must provide one. (In 15 years at Skywest I have never been asked for a doctor's note and I have called in sick many times for a 4 day trip. I guess if you abuse the sick calls than you'll probably be asked to provide a doctor's note. False sick claims will result in termination. I have never heard of a pilot at Skywest being terminated for calling in sick too many times ever. Skywest says the average sick days is 7 but the way it's worded I can't tell if that's per pilot or for all employees. I would imagine flight attendant average is much, much higher. Max of 14 days per sick call though, than it's medical leave.

 

[Nevets]

Skywest policy is no limit to how often you can call in sick. Crew support may not question you in any way or make judgment as to the validity of your sick claim. (I've stopped explaining to them why I'm sick and simply say I'm sick today and won't be coming in. They say thanks for the call and get better. The call is over.)

If you are out sick for more than 3 consecutive days your Chief Pilot "may" ask you for a doctor's note and you must provide one. (In 15 years at Skywest I have never been asked for a doctor's note and I have called in sick many times for a 4 day trip. I guess if you abuse the sick calls than you'll probably be asked to provide a doctor's note. False sick claims will result in termination. I have never heard of a pilot at Skywest being terminated for calling in sick too many times ever. Skywest says the average sick days is 7 but the way it's worded I can't tell if that's per pilot or for all employees. I would imagine flight attendant average is much, much higher. Max of 14 days per sick call though, than it's medical leave.

What is your sick hour accrual rate?

What about DD? Or was that a fatigue call they fired him for?

 

[Erlanger]

What is your sick hour accrual rate?

What about DD? Or was that a fatigue call they fired him for?

Accrual rate is;

After ninety days .0193 per hour
After two years .027 per hour​

After five years .0385 per hour

Fatigue policy is the same as sick. You're fatigued, you simply call in. Crew support may not question you but they patch you to the MOD and an explaination is required but the MOD may not question the validity of your claim. Case closed. No ASAP or IOR required.

DD was fired not for fatigue but for telling his crew to also claim fatigue. They had a 3 or 4 hour delay but well within their duty day. DD simply didn't want to work after that as the company claimed and the rest of his crew testified that he encouraged them all to say they were fatigued when they felt fit to fly. He should of been man enough to simply say he wasn't fit to fly and wasn't going to, but to drag the rest of your crew in and ask them to lie for you for was wrong. Granted there wasn't a fatigue policy in place at that time which would of made his call a non-event. There were other events that took place well after this that got him fired and than rehired but all that drama is another story for another time. LOL!

 

[Abernathy]

To clarify, at ASA a doctor's note isn't enough. To get a sick call to NOT turn into an occurrence, you have to FMLA and get approved.

 

[tiffanytaylor]

We're not allowed to get sick. Getting sick here is a VERY BAD thing.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

You guys/gals put up with this crap? WTF? Are you working at McDonald's? Hell, Chik-fil-a treats their employees better. And they get Sundays off! Sounds like only Skywest has a descent policy.

And to think that I actually CONSIDERED a six month regional hitch to reset my currency since I was furloughed. I could hold my head higher doing gay porn then putting up with this wanna be airline horse crap.

At least you have cool hats.

 

[Nevets]

Fatigue policy is the same as sick. You're fatigued, you simply call in. Crew support may not question you but they patch you to the MOD and an explaination is required but the MOD may not question the validity of your claim. Case closed. No ASAP or IOR required.

DD was fired not for fatigue but for telling his crew to also claim fatigue. They had a 3 or 4 hour delay but well within their duty day. DD simply didn't want to work after that as the company claimed and the rest of his crew testified that he encouraged them all to say they were fatigued when they felt fit to fly. He should of been man enough to simply say he wasn't fit to fly and wasn't going to, but to drag the rest of your crew in and ask them to lie for you for was wrong. Granted there wasn't a fatigue policy in place at that time which would of made his call a non-event. There were other events that took place well after this that got him fired and than rehired but all that drama is another story for another time. LOL!

I'm not sure why you made a point again about not having to explain yourself to the crew scheduler. I thought that was common practice. And I actually think having to explain yourself to anyone at the moment you are calling in fatigue is bs. That didn't happen at XJT. In fact, it use to be that you were only sometimes asked to visit the Cheif pilot later but even that was put a stop to and now the ERC reviews sick calls. That way there is not even the perception of intimidation. The ERC cannot discipline, the Cheif pilot can.

Whatever DD was fired for after calling in fatigued, a judged decided that he was wrongfully terminated. The lack of a policy is actually worse becuase the company doesn't have to consistently apply anything from one fatigue call to another. It's no wonder they were compelled to come up with one after this case.

Anyways, you have an interesting system of accruing sick time. Has a couple of holes and it's WAY TOO low!

 

[Nevets]

You guys/gals put up with this crap? WTF? Are you working at McDonald's? Hell, Chik-fil-a treats their employees better. And they get Sundays off! Sounds like only Skywest has a descent policy.

And to think that I actually CONSIDERED a six month regional hitch to reset my currency since I was furloughed. I could hold my head higher doing gay porn then putting up with this wanna be airline horse crap.

At least you have cool hats.

I find it very odd that skw and Asa have different sick call policies. But it doesn't surprise me at all that the better policy I reserved for the skw pilots and not adopted for the Asa pilots.

 

[Erlanger]

I find it very odd that skw and Asa have different sick call policies. But it doesn't surprise me at all that the better policy I reserved for the skw pilots and not adopted for the Asa pilots.

Since we're not union we and management can change things upon agreement at anytime. Would a union contract have to wait until the next new contract to change that kind of stuff?

 

[Erlanger]

I'm not sure why you made a point again about not having to explain yourself to the crew scheduler. I thought that was common practice. And I actually think having to explain yourself to anyone at the moment you are calling in fatigue is bs. That didn't happen at XJT. In fact, it use to be that you were only sometimes asked to visit the Cheif pilot later but even that was put a stop to and now the ERC reviews sick calls. That way there is not even the perception of intimidation. The ERC cannot discipline, the Cheif pilot can.

Whatever DD was fired for after calling in fatigued, a judged decided that he was wrongfully terminated. The lack of a policy is actually worse becuase the company doesn't have to consistently apply anything from one fatigue call to another. It's no wonder they were compelled to come up with one after this case.

Anyways, you have an interesting system of accruing sick time. Has a couple of holes and it's WAY TOO low!

Vacation accrual is double the sicktime accrual rate. If you run out of sick time you can dip into your vacation time. Also sicktime can be cashed out once a year just before Christmas. Whatever you don't use is I guess a little bonus so I cash it out every year and use vacation when I'm sick. Skywest is thinking about doing away with that loophole and making vacation/sicktime all as one. Vacation is payable to you only when you leave the company even if you get fired. You'd have to not take vacation or sick time for like 10 years before you'd hit the max.

 

[Nevets]

Since we're not union we and management can change things upon agreement at anytime. Would a union contract have to wait until the next new contract to change that kind of stuff?

Did "we" decide to change your healthcare benefits? Anyways, yes the company can approach ALPA at anytime and change the contract upon agreement. Isn't thatthe way Asa got PBS? In any case, I would be surprised if the sick call policy is contractual anyways.

Vacation accrual is double the sicktime accrual rate. If you run out of sick time you can dip into your vacation time. Also sicktime can be cashed out once a year just before Christmas. Whatever you don't use is I guess a little bonus so I cash it out every year and use vacation when I'm sick. Skywest is thinking about doing away with that loophole and making vacation/sicktime all as one. Vacation is payable to you only when you leave the company even if you get fired. You'd have to not take vacation or sick time for like 10 years before you'd hit the max.

I see the trick now. Accrue low amounts of sick time in order to increase the probability of you having to dip into vacation time. At least you have a choice if you want to use your vacation time. I think it's great that you can cash out sick time and vacation time. I wish we had that.

 

[Erlanger]

Did "we" decide to change your healthcare benefits?

Good one! That's funny!

But actually the healthcare is not part our pilot psdo "contract". It falls under a different company policy for all employees that's not a "contract". Interesting! Maybe we need to get that changed.....if we ever can.

But the ASA pilots will be getting changes eventually to their healthcare whether they realize it as XJet once they are merged. Skywest, Inc will see to it I'm sure.

 

[Damich]

......

 

[hmmurdock]

You guys/gals put up with this crap? WTF? Are you working at McDonald's? Hell, Chik-fil-a treats their employees better. And they get Sundays off! Sounds like only Skywest has a descent policy.

And to think that I actually CONSIDERED a six month regional hitch to reset my currency since I was furloughed. I could hold my head higher doing gay porn then putting up with this wanna be airline horse crap.

At least you have cool hats.

I really do not miss the regional BS at all. At Delta you call in sick and sched tells you to call them when you are well and thats it. No occurance(sp) nothing. Basically they treat you like an adult!!

 

[Nevets]

Good one! That's funny!

But actually the healthcare is not part our pilot psdo "contract". It falls under a different company policy for all employees that's not a "contract". Interesting! Maybe we need to get that changed.....if we ever can.

But the ASA pilots will be getting changes eventually to their healthcare whether they realize it as XJet once they are merged. Skywest, Inc will see to it I'm sure.

Good luck changing that. You guys don't even have the power to change your pseudo nontract.

But why would do you say Inc will have their healthcare benefits diminished? What's wrong with them keeping good benefits?