Originally Posted by
Han Solo
There was always verification, but you used to be able to preverify which you can now only do for reasons that almost never happen. They also changed to a rolling 12 month window instead of set calendar year. Having just recently gone to the doc for a non-qualifying injury, it definitely would've been nice to preverify since I was there anyway instead of having to make an unnecessary doctor's appointment for some future cold I might have should I go over 100 hours of sick usage.
Right. This was a huge give and one less piece of swiss cheese in the stack.
Being able to preverify worked exactly like you described; when you're at the Dr's anyway, or when you know you have an easily verifiable condition, you could get the note to reduce future scrutiny. Now OTOH, you're dependant on whatever you happen to get on the 101st hour (just to oversimplify, no need to quote the entire legalese on it) and if that condition is something hard to verify, then you will be pressured to fly with it and inevitably some do because no one knows what happens when you go get a required note under official scrutiny and the note only says "ops check good could not duplicate" or "patient reports...could not verify". Then what? No one really knows and that seems to be by design.
It'll save the bean counters a few pennies here and there right until it doesn't and there's a monstrous coming to jesus moment.
I believe they believe that. However its logical that many pilots don't want to push it, don't want the scrutiny, and don't want to get close to the 100 much less over it for "minor" or borderline conditions, so the incentive is there to just carry it at virtually any hour mark. That has to result in more on the road sick outs as well as getting others sick. We look at this in the context of "abusers" and supposedly everyone has the restrictions we do because of a few so accused individuals. Certain entities want to reduce the "abuse" and see such efforts as reducing total sick call time/credit etc. More productivity and the like. However what likely never makes the White Papers much less the negotiating table is the downline consequences of the policies. If you are faced with your first sick call that triggers the verification and its a full blown flu/pnemonia or some well documented condition where your Dr will air drop notes like confetti after the moon landing, then you have nothing to worry about. But if its a borderline condition (upset stomach, mild-moderate nausea and many others) that are probably unmeasurable by a third party...now what? So it becomes easier to just carry it in to work.
The pitfalls of the current system are going to be extremely hard to claw back in C19 and I doubt there's even a "mandate" to do so with all the rest that will be focused on. If anything, we will be under pressure to give even more back because this is viewed as a net cost hemmoraging item.