Our sick program is great, and there is absolutely zero reason to change the core of it. I've been out on LTD now twice, and having an extra month or two of full pay AFTER you hurt yourself is great. As someone with some (for now relatively minor, let's hope they stay that way) chronic health issues and small kids, I would never be able to build up any sort of buffer in an accrual system. If we only got 80 hrs/year, all it takes is the sniffles on day 1 of a 6 day trip to wipe out half a year's worth of hours. I much prefer our current system.

Having said that, like much of the contract, it could use some cleaning up. Many have already hit on:

• GFB: Needs to be eliminated in it's entirety.
• Verification: Should also be eliminated, but if we can't get that, it should at least allow for voluntary verification

But there are a couple other niche issues related to sick and LTD that most people don't know about, but absolutely need to be corrected because when it happens to you, it suuuuuuucks:

• 14.D.1.a and c: Pilot don't get sick hours until completion of OE.
  • If you are a new hire or pilot returning from medical leave and you get sick during training or OE, you don't get paid. Period.
  • This is an easy change, and extremely low cost to the company: Sick bank gets refilled the day you become an active pilot.
• Pilots returning from LTD are punished for two years following their return with regards to vacation:
  • If you were out for the prior vacation year, you get no vacation AT ALL for the remainder of the vacation year you come back in.
  • Even if you weren't out the entire year and you do have some accrued vacation, you missed the master bid and therefore get assigned whatever weeks the company wants to give you no matter your seniority. You can only change it via the move-up process, which is cumbersome at best.
  • Pilots don't start accruing next year's vacation until after OE. This means a minimum of two months of full time work with no accrual, and if you come back late in the vacation year, it could push you into the nest vacation year with no vacation.
  • Once you are back to work, for the following vacation year, you will not have a full year's worth of accrual. This means less total vacation pay and because you don't have a full bank, fewer weeks of vacation for the vacation year AFTER you come back.

All because you had the audacity to get sick.

Hurumph.