BusDrvr

A very smart Delta pilot who also works in the health care industry put out the following response:

I am not in favor of either the carrot or the stick when it comes to sick leave, but reality almost always trumps ideality. So after you get over the fact that DALPA helped validate a reason for a stick, and then assisted in making the stick, we must understand how big the stick is and how big the stick may grow.
Below, please find my comments on the latest negotiators’ notepad. Please read my other posts on the subject of the content of a medical note. Sorry for the hard to read format but don't have the time to fix it.
Black is from the Negotiator's Notepad
Why make changes to our Sick Leave program?
Like the pilots at Delta, our peers in the industry are also getting older and experiencing many of the same health issues that we all experience. However, their sick leave usage has essentially been flat since 2011.
Because they ALL have a carrot system.
Sick Leave, what has not changed?
Although some procedures in regard to when a medical release may be required have changed, the release itself continues to be limited to only the specific absence in question and the days immediately around it. This medical release does not now, nor does this agreement require, a general release of a pilot’s medical records.
This last line is factually correct, but disingenuously misleading. One medical note (say an initial visit to a urologist for kidney stones, or an initial visit to a pain specialist for back problems) may contain your entire medical and social history documented in it. It may have lab results that include an entire metabolic panel. It may include a CAT scan that shows that you have a kidney stone (when you went to the doctor for back pain).
(As an aside, why do I keep using the kidney stone example? Because I had them 2 years ago, they are difficult to clear the FAA hurdle of “completely stone free,” they have a very high chance of recurring, they require detailed imaging that can expose other issues, and probably 2 out of the next 10 Captains you fly with have had them and you will have a very high change of getting one yourself.)
I have read a lot of comments that the release is specific to that illness. It is just not practical. Doctors like pilots are beaten down by paperwork and documentation and do not have the time to sit down and redact notes.
Changes affecting Sick Leave
Many of these changes are straight out of the disability playbook. This plan is a blank check to intimidate pilot’s to reduce their use of sick leave.

The following items have been changed from our current sick leave program:

• If verification is required, a new QHCP certificate will be the only means to verify a sickness
• Voluntary verification has been eliminated

So all sick counts toward work days except surgery, hospitalization, fracture bone, and sole discretion of DHS.

• Other proof of illness” has been eliminated

So the refill of antibiotics that your ENT gave you for chronic sinusitis does not count as verification.
Verification modifications:

• The Chief Pilot and Pilot Support Center are now out of the verification process

Red Herring – HIPAA is not the issue in any of this argument. If you want the long drawn out explanation, send me a PM. What is important is that except in very specific situations, the Chief Pilot gets your medical information (read current doctor’s note) versus now DHS gets either a QHCP (read disability form designed to make you go back to the doctor and wear you out) or even worse, a medical release.
FROM BELOW
The new agreement requires that all verifications of sickness be submitted to a department run by the Director - Health Services.
Again, disingenuous. Read the TA. “DHS or his designee may request further information . . .”
Delta currently has a Director of Health Services (DHS) who is an AME. This agreement makes no change to that. He now will be tasked with receiving and reviewing the verification of sickness.
Delta will outsource this task to a disability company that specializes in reducing sick leave. They are not nice people.
Verification from a pilot’s QHCP will now be reviewed by the Director - Health Services (DHS)
But his designee may require more information
Qualified Health Care Professional (QHCP) vs. “Doctor”
bona fide doctor-patient relationship for purposes of providing a QHCP certificate
Any time the company puts in words that 9 out of 10 of us can’t define, it is bad for us. And it will certainly cost every pilot more money for minor illnesses.
And finally, a QHCP certificate must provide a description of a pilot’s sickness and an estimated return to work date. “Other proof of illness” has been eliminated, making the QHCP certificate the only acceptable means of satisfying the verification requirements. 


This is a classic disability play to make you go back to the doctor. Everything is designed to create a burden on the employee.
From Sick Hours to Missed Work Days
No opinion here.
Verification and Medical Release Requirements
Based on the data from the last three years, approximately two-thirds of Delta pilots have missed fewer than 15 days of work in a year.
So if we believe that the last 3 years are representative of the next 3 years then 4000 pilots will have to verify their illness with the QHCP process and form.
And what is the estimate for how many of those pilots will be required by the DHS designee under Section 4 G 1 b to supply a medical release anyway because of the little nugget this notepad forgot to talk about?
“verification is required or has been sought under 14 F and DHS is not able to assess the medical basis for the use of sick leave”
This has a hole big enough to drive a truck through in its ability to harass.
And that two-thirds number increases significantly if we look at pilot sick leave statistics at Delta over a longer time period.
I can’t believe this was included! “If the stick is big enough, and we beat you down enough, you will be back in line and only 2500 instead of 4000 will have to verify their illnesses."
This level of sick usage is more than twice the annual average and 1.5 times the rolling 3-year average.
I am pretty sure from my statistics classes that “average” is not the proper analysis to use with this data.
(Another small aside. Both Delta and DALPA throw around the wrong statistical analyses all the time. The reason the first space shuttle crashed was because of the incorrect statistical analysis of O-ring failure.)
The medical release itself is unchanged from the current contract. It is limited to the specific sick occurrence, and not a general release of your medical records. Based on current sick leave usage, less than 15% of our pilot group will ever need to complete a medical release.
Almost 2000 pilots (on a rolling basis of course and not included the gaping loophole in the verification section) will be subject to medical release. I will say it again and again until it sinks in. I do not know what the number of releases, as a pilot group, that we now have to sign but I bet it is nowhere near 2000 and there is no way we want to go down this road.
Verification and Medical Release Exclusions
Additionally, a pilot may voluntarily provide a medical release for other serious medical conditions to have missed work days from a verified sick absence in excess of 20 consecutive days exempted from the thresholds. This medical release is completely at the pilot’s option.
BUT IS AT THE SOLE DISCRETION OF DHS THROUGH OBJECTIVE PATHOLOGY WHETHER TO ACCEPT IT. Please read my other post about doctors from disability companies disagreeing about a doctor’s diagnosis to turn down a claim– objectively of course. There is an entire legal industry that exists solely to defend patient’s disability claims.
Calling in Well No Longer Required
No opinion.
Director - Heath Services Department
The new agreement requires that all verifications of sickness be submitted to a department run by the Director - Health Services.
Read – outsourced disability company with DHS AME listed on paper as CEO or Director of Operations.
This department and new process will help ensure the confidentiality of the medical information by receiving and maintaining verifications in a manner that ensures appropriate privacy safeguards.
Red Herring – doesn’t matter – really, it doesn’t matter. Have you heard of any Chief Pilot talking about your illness in the lounge or posting it on DeltaNet?
FAR Limits
A pilot who calls in sick will now be treated as if he had operated his rotation for purposes of initially determining whether he may be assigned a rotation via a White Slip (WS), Green Slip (GS), or Green Slip with Conflict (GSWC). As exists today, WS requests will be processed separately from GS requests. If flying his original rotation, for which he called in sick, would have made him illegal to be awarded his WS (or GS, GSWC), all other pilots in that assignment step with a WS (or GS, GSWC) request will be considered first. However, if no other pilots are awarded the rotation via WS (or GS, GSWC), the pilot who called in sick may be awarded the rotation.
Sounds fair to me. Cost it out, add it to our current sick leave policy and give us 80% of the cost savings, if any, in our raise.
FAA Leave
This TA also establishes FAA leave. Currently, a pilot on active payroll status awaiting the processing of his medical certificate by the FAA is required to use his sick leave. Under this agreement, he now has a maximum of 60 days of FAA leave separate from his sick leave. This leave is paid the same as sick leave, does not count as missed work days for either the verification or medical release threshold, and is not counted toward his sick leave hours. Additionally, if the pilot uses sick days subsequent to the exhaustion of his 60 days of FAA leave while awaiting the processing of his medical, these days also do not count toward any threshold.
Good thing. Let’s add it to our current sick leave policy.
Disability Account
Beginning with our current sick leave year (2015/2016), a pilot who uses less than 80 hours of sick leave in the sick leave year will have 50% of his unused sick hours below 80 hours (up to 40 hours in any single, completed sick leave year) credited to a new disability account. This new account will allow a pilot who goes on disability to extend his period of full pay before dropping to 50% on disability pay only. A pilot would be eligible to use hours in his disability account to provide “enhanced disability benefits”. For example, if a pilot has 80 hours in his account, he would be eligible to receive 40 hours of pay at his current rate on top of his LTD benefit upon exhaustion of the DPMA benefit.
What happened to work days? Not very creative as a carrot to greatly reduce sick leave. Nonetheless, could be added to our current sick policy.
Implementation
The Company expects to be ready to fully implement the new sick leave items by the end of the year. In the interim, the look back periods for both the verification and medical release thresholds will look back no further than the beginning of the current sick leave year, June 1, 2015. That means any missed work days prior to June 1st will not count toward any thresholds. The 365-day metric will grow from that point as will the 1095-day metric. For example, if the new program is fully implemented on December 1, 2015 the initial look back will only be the number of missed work days since June 1, 2015. It will continue to grow until the 365-day point is reached and then will begin a rolling 365-day look back. The same will occur with the 1095-day metric.
So the harassment, like our reduction in profit sharing, would not have started for a little while had we approved this TA. I cannot believe that anyone falls for this negotiating tactic.
The requirement to verify sick above 100 hours will cease on the date of signing (DOS) of this agreement. Additionally, voluntary verification will no longer be accepted after DOS, since it will not impact any thresholds going forward. However, the requirement to verify after being absent on a single sick occurrence for 15 or more consecutive days will continue since it is part of the current PWA and is unchanged in this TA. These verifications should be from a QHCP to allow pilots to establish their ability to use the exceptions for 20 or more consecutive missed work days in this TA when all the changes are incorporated. The “good faith basis”, since it is part of the current PWA and the TA, will also remain in effect.
So all the existing bad starts today. New bad starts in a bit.
Conclusion
Please take the time to read the entire series of Notepads, share the material with your families, attend one of the road shows, and ask as many questions as you need to ask.
"Sorry we left out a few important points. But how important is your health privacy as well as your mental health worrying about all this ****? Come on. You probably could have flown those last 2 days of your trip. You weren't that sick." DALPA NC
Our sick leave program is a valuable benefit to our entire pilot group and should be protected.
“We are not going to do it. So it is up to you.” DALPA NC

THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE BIG STICK AND NONE OF US KNOW HOW BAD IT REALLY CAN GET