Originally Posted by
bigbusdriver
No skin off my nose, the position he's in is junior to me. On the Big Bus the FOs have to be type rated and have a current First Class medical so I can doze in my beautiful bunk. AA just got his medical back. He didn't have one for nearly a year and hadn't flown a trip since mid-2011 until this month. My grip is that somebody at the company allowed him to keep bidding when normal people would have been kicked out of the system onto disability. He got a whole bunch of trip drops that should have been sick leave. Favoritism?
Wonder if the guys making that decision are the same type as those that testified against my bunk in the arbitration? It sucks that our own are working against us. Hope they have fun when they're flying.
BBD, I don't know how Disability and Sick Leave worked at NW, but I was out on sick/disability here at DL South a few years back. To get onto "Disability Status" you first must use up all your normal Sick Leave. To do that, you do indeed bid every month, then basically 'sick out' of all your trips, until all of your sick leave is used up.
Once all your sick leave is gone, you are now on 'short term' disability, and about 6 weeks later, if you are still injured/sick/etc. you go onto to "Long Term Disability", which pays you basically 50% of what you were making on regular status, and you cannot bid, your status is Sick Leave of Absense 'SLOA'. (the pay has changed with the last two T/A's but it's still roughly 50% regulrar pay, when you are on LTD).
So, yes, he would bid a regular line and then drop all the trips, until his normal sick leave is used up, then go onto LTD.
Now...I have heard of some DALPA office types who were able to drop their trips for DALPA work when they were sick/injured, vs. use up their sick leave, to extend their sick time as their sick bank would not be charged, if it was a DALPA drop instead. Thereby being able to recover and return to work prior to going to LTD and the 50% pay cut.
Nice gig, if you can get it...
