Originally Posted by
DALMD88FO
I will add on one more about the survey and sick leave. There were questions about what if we had a sick bank that was paid out each year if it's not used or something to that effect. I wrote that this would be a huge mistake. Just like the flight attendants with their PPT, which can be used as sick time, it will never be used. You will have guys/gals on their deathbeds crawling into the cockpit so that they get the max payout amount. I had a system like this at a 121 supplemental airline while on furlough. You would get a quaterly bonus if you didn't call in sick and an annual additional bonus if you made it a year. I know that a lot of you will say "We know if we are too sick to fly", however I've seen to the contrary. Even under the current system at Delta.
I agree wholeheartedly. That's my main reason for my "it ain't broke, don't fix it" position.
Our current system allows us to have annual minor events with minimal effect on our exposure to major events.
For example, 2 sick years ago I broke my foot and burned through about 140 hours of sick time while it was healing up. 3 months later, on June 1, my bank was reloaded and my exposure for a "major" event was returned to the level it was prior to breaking my foot. Not so under a bank system.
If we had a bank system, guys would most certainly be incentivized to fly sick, return early, etc so they could "retire 2 years early..." I heard lots of fNWA guys talk about that plan when I was a new hire there.
What I like about our system is that we are hedged against both short and long term events. My only input to improve the system is to increase LTD payouts to something better than 50%. United currently has 55%. I'd like to see that or 60% in C2015. That would do much more for our downside protection than incentivizing guys to squirrel away hours.