No one said the increase is random. We are saying that it's wild to claim that it's abuse using a nearly negligible increase. Additionally, the increase occurred during one of the worst national flu outbreaks in 25 years. That could easily explain the increase in sick usage. What has the increase in GFB calls been and have they resulted in rejected usage? Has sick usage nationally increased this winter? What about your peer airlines? Has their sick usage increased? And even outside that, has the presence of a look back dissuaded pilots from making a proper IM SAFE determination for fear of getting too close to the annual look back?

The Office Space-esque jumping to conclusions was without any merit. Has there been an increase in sick occurrences? Sure, I grant that (let's put aside that they chose to highlight occurrences and not total hourly usage). But if the pilot group as a whole was abusing it, sick usage would be through the roof. But it's a modest, nay minor, increase in sick time usage. Small increases like these are much more likely explained by season viruses and illness than abuse.