A pilots use of their sick time is the utilization of an accrued benefit and should be viewed as such by both the pilot group and management. Other work groups are treated like adults and term this benefit “PTO”, which seems to have much less of a negative connotation. Some who communicate with the pilot group regularly even put it in their emails to communicate when they’ll be out on “PTO”. Attempting to control how a pilot uses THEIR accrued benefit and any attempt at influencing the use of said accrued benefit should be viewed as overreach, just the same as if management attempted to influence how you spend your paycheck or invest your 401k savings, and treated as such. Such overreach should be forwarded for ethics review accordingly.