Originally Posted by
Karnak
Fortunately, there's the arbitration process. It's a System Board that's not a court of law. It's a professional "neutral" that listens to the facts, the circumstances, and the logic to determine if the rules have been broken.
Any pilot with a reasonable response during the investigation such as, "I drove over from Cleveland and stayed at my girlfriend's house for every short call", will then be able to turn the tables: "Prove you called me while on short call and I wasn't available to take the assignment."
CAUTION! Using that turnabout might not work if the company has a time-stamped Periscope video of you screaming in delirious ecstasy at a Justin Bieber concert.
You're exactly right in that this is a case for the system board. The board is typically very employee friendly in matters like this, provided a vigorous defense is presented. The company's case here seems to depend almost completely on circumstantial lack of proof of one's innocence. For the reason they should lose and have to pay a penalty. At the very least, full back pay, reemployment and a clear cut precedent that this type of pathetic big data dump witch hunting will not be allowed to stand.
If the end result is still a handful of dirtbag idiots still sitting SC "from home" a million miles away, then they can come to us we'll see if we can work something out. I'd be all in favor of some kind of location verification system for SC, provided the monthly number of SC's is reduced. Perhaps throw in 4 times a year a normal commuter can use a one flight policy. One of our biggest regionals already has that. We can address their concerns in a way that benefits everyone including them. But establishing BS retroactive criteria where you are guilty if you can't prove your innocence is unacceptable, and the system board will most likely smack that down hard.
And if any pilot is rocking out to the Beibs, they deserve full pay protection while they go to a proper rehabilitation program.