____________NEW SECTION 14 LANGUAGE_____________________


F. Notification/Verification of Sickness

1. A pilot will notify Crew Scheduling upon becoming aware:

a. that, due to sickness, he will be unable to perform duty or be available on an on call day,

b. of a period of known sick leave and known accident leave so that Crew Scheduling may post it as a known absence, and

c. that he is well.

Note: A pilot is not required to state the nature of his illness to Crew Scheduling.

2. A pilot may verify any sickness by providing to his Chief Pilot or the Chief Pilot Support Center either: a doctor’s certificate, or other proof of illness. At its option, the Company may require a doctor’s certificate to satisfy verification under Section 14 F. 2., 3., or 4.

3. Verification of sickness under Section 14 F. 2. is required when:

a. a pilot has used more than 100 hours of unverified sick leave in a sick leave year, or

b. a pilot has been absent on a single sick occurrence for 15 or more consecutive days.

4. When individual circumstances exist that give the Company a good faith basis to inquire regarding the medical reason for a pilot’s use of sick leave, such pilot may be required to state the nature of his illness in general terms to his Chief Pilot. Following such discussion, the Chief Pilot may:

a. consider the current sick leave occurrence to be verified, or

b. require verification of sickness from the pilot under Section 14 F. 2.

Note: Such individual circumstances may not be derived solely from the amount of

sick leave used by the pilot or the frequency of his sick occurrences.

5. In the event the Company requires a doctor’s certificate for verification, a pilot may

submit a reimbursement claim through DBMS for any reasonable expense incurred

in obtaining such verification.



G. Medical Release Requirement

A pilot who is required to verify his sickness under Section 14 F. 4. may be

required to provide the Company with a written authorization for release of medical

information (release), provided the release is limited to:

1. the specific sickness for which the pilot claimed sick leave,

2. the day(s) on which the pilot claimed sick leave and the consecutive day(s) off

immediately preceding and succeeding the day(s) on which a pilot claimed sick leave,

and

3. a Company designated doctor or other health care professional(s) and the Director – Health Services and the Senior Vice-President of Flight Operations.


In 2002/3 the company started a sick leave monitoring program. ALPA grieved it and won. A complete slam dunk ruling. Why? Management bargained for such a program in C2K, and the MEC would not give it to them. Management later instituted the program on their own. The RLA is clear: one party cannot use the System Board of Adjustment to get what they could NOT achieve at the table. Since DAL failed to get this program at the bargaining table, they were not free just to institute it and tell us "too bad". The sick leave monitoring program was rescinded.

Fast forward to 2011. DAL starts a new sick leave monitoring program. Didn't ALPA win that grievance? ALPA's response? We are studying it. OK... Now we bargained over it. It will be interesting if ALPA now tried to grieve this if this TA fails. Would ALPA now be using the System Board to achieve something they could not at the bargaining table? The simple solution would have been to make DAL comply with the ruling from 2004.

Note F.4. This is the trap door. Sick leave usage is a big deal to DAL management.