Your airline's sick policy

[waveflyer]

SWA is really addressing absenteeism with all the work groups-
Just curious what other Major airlines sick policies are, accrual, and absentee rates are? (ie: what percentage of your pilot group calls in sick on an average day?- if you have access to that info)
We compare things like pay rates and work rules all the time- but this is a subject I'm pretty ignorant on at the other airlines.

Delta:

United/CAL

JB

VA

Usair

AA

Alaska

F9

Etc

 

[Junkflyer]

At Hawaiian accrual is 7.5 hours per month, 5.65 if you call in sick. It drops to 0 with a formula for the group as a whole if sick leave is more than 5.5% of the pay hours in the previous year. That's the basics.
There is a point system used as an abuse deterrent. 3 points for each occurrence (not day) of calling in sick. I believe you minus 2 points for a no-sick month. If you hit 15 points then each sick call requires a doctors note.

 

[Bringupthebird]

Take a look at what AA is trying to jam down the throats of the pilots and you'll have a pretty fair picture of what the future policies across the board will be.

 

[fam62c]

I think the sick leave statistics would be hard to find. Wave, do you not believe GK when he says it's a problem? The question will be whether they try to solve the problem with incentives or do it punitively. I know that JB uses a personal day system where sick leave and vacation are combined into a single bank and you can use the time or not, it's up to you; I don't know many other details about their system but I know some people there and the system seems to be quite flexible. As age 65 approaches I can see where a lot of senior pilots nearing retirement are going to start using up their sick leave because it has no value once they leave the property.

One thought would be a bonus system for using little or no sick leave in a given rolling time period. Say a bonus of X dollars for using one event or less in a six month period or a scaled bonus based on the umber of events with no bonus after some number of events. The company would have to calculate the cost of sick leave and what it would be worth to discourage it before creating the system. Pilots are driven by greed so the right system might work if people could earn more. Sometimes you are sick and need to stay home but we all know that many people are abusing the system and using it as additional paid vacation.

Another option would be to only pay out for a certain number of events a year, after that sick leave would be unpaid. That way you would still have access to your paid bank if you had a serious illness and had a long event but you would think twice about playing hooky if you knew it would be unpaid or a future event would be unpaid if you were really sick.

This and a few other things are sure to come up in the next SW contract negotiations.

 

[pilotyip]

We don't even have sick days. Everyone get 1/2 personal day per month, 6 per year. You can do whatever you want with that day, even use it if you are sick. You can carry 5 days over to the next year. This allows for a maximum of 11 days on the books. It is a use it or loose it. Almost no questions asked about their use.

 

[troll565]

NK: 4 hours accrual per month. Capped at 400 hours, 100% paid out upon retirement if Longevity is +15 years. Average 15% on weekends, 5% weekday

 

[fam62c]

We don't even have sick days. Everyone get 1/2 personal day per month, 6 per year. You can do whatever you want with that day, even use it if you are sick. You can carry 5 days over to the next year. This allows for a maximum of 11 days on the books. It is a use it or loose it. Almost no questions asked about their use.

If you only can bank 11 days what happens if you break a bone or something and are out for 6 weeks or have another serious illness? Do you have disability plans to deal with serious illness or are you just on your own? Banking sick leave is important for pilots because we can have things like kidney stones or whatever where you could go to work at a normal job after the acute phase has passed but you can't fly for possibly a long while.

 

[HDA]

VX: very liberal policy. No form of accrual for sick days/hours.....you call in sick and you get the pay value of the trip. A positive space r/t ticket for employee and family as a bonus for no sick calls during certain periods of the year.

 

[fam62c]

VX: very liberal policy. No form of accrual for sick days/hours.....you call in sick and you get the pay value of the trip. A positive space r/t ticket for employee and family as a bonus for no sick calls during certain periods of the year.

So you can call in sick as many times as you want with full pay and nobody says anything, nobody ever gets "talked to?"

 

[HDA]

So you can call in sick as many times as you want with full pay and nobody says anything, nobody ever gets "talked to?"

Yes....you can call in as often as you need with full pay. Im sure if someone calls attention to themself by excessive calls that they could get a "health and welfare" call, but I personally dont know anyone who has. We have over 500 pilots now....im sure there are a few who abuse it....always are.

 

[CesnaCaptn]

I wonder if a policy like that encourages sick calls or discourages them.

I've never seen people abuse sick leave like they do at Alaska. Of course my point of reference is a regional where 4 days of sick leave use a year put you above average.

 

[pilotyip]

If you only can bank 11 days what happens if you break a bone or something and are out for 6 weeks or have another serious illness? Do you have disability plans to deal with serious illness or are you just on your own? Banking sick leave is important for pilots because we can have things like kidney stones or whatever where you could go to work at a normal job after the acute phase has passed but you can't fly for possibly a long while.

We have had guys break bones, fail a EKG, they have options. Take vacation, Medical, LOA, Short Term Disability or keep full pay and come into management until you are healed. Teach Ground School, write manuals, 8-5 M-F paper/office work.

 

[instructordude]

We have had guys break bones, fail a EKG, they have options. Take vacation, Medical, LOA, Short Term Disability or keep full pay and come into management until you are healed. Teach Ground School, write manuals, 8-5 M-F paper/office work.

Those are great ideas pilotyip! There is always stuff to do like check pubs, help out with manuals, take out the trash etc. I've gone in on sick days and helped out with publications page counts and general spring cleaning for the chiefs office. I don't forget who pays my bills brutha!

 

[CA1900]

I've gone in on sick days and helped out with publications page counts and general spring cleaning for the chiefs office...

:laugh:

You crack me up dude!

 

[T-1GUY]

So please explain what Abuse of sick time is ? I have a contract that says I accrue so much time per year. If I use more than what is in my bank, then I will not be paid for additional sick days taken. I think the balance was struck during negotiation. I can't wait to hear the mindset of using accumulated sick days is "Abuse" of the system. I guess I would have a problem with it, if the same people are always "sick" during holidays, but otherwise, I feel that it is your time to burn if needed...

 

[jonjuan]

It sounds like from Wave's original post that SWA is getting concerned about people banging out sick in much higher than historic numbers. What's the sick policy over there? What does Gary think of it?

 

[shon7]

So please explain what Abuse of sick time is ? I have a contract that says I accrue so much time per year. If I use more than what is in my bank, then I will not be paid for additional sick days taken. I think the balance was struck during negotiation. I can't wait to hear the mindset of using accumulated sick days is "Abuse" of the system. I guess I would have a problem with it, if the same people are always "sick" during holidays, but otherwise, I feel that it is your time to burn if needed...

you should move to France.

 

[AC560]

I can't wait to hear the mindset of using accumulated sick days is "Abuse" of the system.

Because the company allows you to accrue sick days so if you should have a catastrophic illness it wouldn't financially devastate you. This however doesn't mean that you can use these as time off whenever you feel like or when you would like to punish the company.

One of the largest expenses companies have is unplanned time off and that is especially true in the airline world where a good chunk of the work force just sits around waiting for people to call in sick (i.e. people sitting reserve). This kills profits which kills companies.

If you want time off negotiate for that but don't ask for sick time and then use it as a holiday bank.

 

[fam62c]

Because the company allows you to accrue sick days so if you should have a catastrophic illness it wouldn't financially devastate you. This however doesn't mean that you can use these as time off whenever you feel like or when you would like to punish the company.

One of the largest expenses companies have is unplanned time off and that is especially true in the airline world where a good chunk of the work force just sits around waiting for people to call in sick (i.e. people sitting reserve). This kills profits which kills companies.

If you want time off negotiate for that but don't ask for sick time and then use it as a holiday bank.

Well said, I totally agree. If you are too sick to work stay home, if you are not show up and do your job. Benefits that get abused get reduced or eliminated.

 

[crxpilot]

Allegiant always pays you 70 hours a month but anything above that is lost on sick calls unless you want to use your Paid Time Off balance. So we have guys who are seemingly permanently sick and still get paid (and will till they are 65 according to our work agreement). Certainly not perfect, but definitely not a bad policy.