Carl: "There are no abusers because if there were they'd be fired and they aren't doing that."
There are abusers and we all damn well know it. One reason they don't get fired is that DALPA defends them mightily, the same way a defense attorney does his best even if he "knows" his client did it. This is the same DALPA everyone is castigating.
I flew with a guy who said he called in sick every month just because he could. It was his benefit. He's got a brother or brother in law who's a doctor so verification is no problem. The company hates it I'm sure but all they can do is harass him with a CP but Honey Badger don't care.
Guys like that I wouldn't trust any further than I could throw them. It seems to me that he is the very definition of an "abuser." They are the reason that we have this POS sick section to begin with. Do you disagree?
Sick leave at this company is sort of (but not exactly) like the insurance on your car or house. It is not a "benefit" to be tapped any time you feel like--it is there for when you need it. The actuarial assumptions for an insurance company assume that most customers do not use their services most of the time. Almost all customers will eventually submit an honest claim for smaller scale stuff (fender benders, hail roof damage) and then there is the occasional total loss (totaled car, lightning burns down the house). NO insurance company has models that assume all customers use all the coverage every year--and then gloat about it!
While I think that our SVP of flight ops has an almost alarming obsession with sick leave use, the bottom line is that there are a quantifiable group of guys who use all their sick leave, but miraculously get better a couple of months before the sick leave resets (but rarely if ever go on short term disability)
So what does the company do? This TA is the answer.
Actually you are completely correct--and it punishes those of us who call in sick when we are sick (as I do--I'm not getting anyone sick in my cockpit!) but don't when we aren't sick.
Sec 14.G.3 says if the DHS doesn't like your verification after the MRT it may be "expanded to include a Company designated doctor or other health care professionals and the Director - Health Services and SVP of FO.".
So what does that mean? It means that a doc in the company can take your medical records and if not happy with your sick use can notify the FAA for certificate action. At the least it can notify the FAA and when you get your medical and don't report every one of those doc visits on your FAA form they got you for that.
I know the Delta medical guy has done more to help pilots get their tickets back. But we are talking about guys that the company wants to change their behavior at the least or terminate at the worst. Does anyone doubt that the "company designated doctor" will be on our side?
You are probably right--and it is one reason I will vote against this poor TA. I just disagreed with your impression that the "guy you flew with" was somehow in the right and sick leave was just a great benefit to tap year after year. Guys like him make it a real pain for the negotiators.
At the same time I despise the occasional (though thankfully increasingly rare) guys who brag about going decades without calling in sick. Either they are a rare breed indeed or they have flown sick (for some weird "I have to save Delta" reason) and gotten others sick in the process. Thanks guys!