The legal and professional obligation we operate under is the requirement to self report fitness for duty. Period.

What other occupation requires, at the start of every workday, the execution of such an all encompassing....and legally binding declaration?

The same professional judgment and integrity the airline, the pax, and the faa count on our exercising in every other aspect of aircraft operation.....is what every individual exercises in each fitness for duty determination.

We have an allocated number of paid sick leave hours in our pwa. I dont care if a pilot uses every second of that allocation every year if his individual determination was, in every instance, that he was not fit for duty. Its not my place to second guess that individuals call about their personal fitness.

Use none, or use it all......in either case...there is no 'abuse'.

If the cost of that allocation has become onerous....then reduce the allocation. Or offer lower cost alternatives for work absences.