Perhaps Karnak will be one of the small percentage that ends up in the verification spiral. The company denied quite a few verifications under the old system. Karma can be a *****!

 

I don't think so. The company came to us with - if the comments from our negotiators are correct - their #1 issue. Rather than decreasing their liability (sick leave accruals and access), the changes were negotiated into being just "hassle" (my term) procedures.

We have the same amount of benefit.

Are you going to let the new verification requirement change your sick leave usage?

Do you know any pilots who will?

I don't see it that way. I see the company's #1 issue reduced to a hassle instead of a decrease in value. Expressed another way, would we have jumped at $400/hour if it meant having to go back to Pay Sheets done manually?

Um, yeah!

Were that true, we'd be very happy! If all financial issues were settled by having hassle substituted for monetary impact, we would be doing pretty good!

On this we agree! I'll repeat it for the third time: Delta can't manage sick leave. It appears the lawyers in HR are telling flight operations how to (not) handle it. They might've thought they were negotiating a gate, but all they've done is build a speed bump. It won't change a thing. In a couple of years they'll be back, trying to reduce their liability and/or make it a bigger hassle. That'll continue until somebody replaces the lawyers with a beta version of the LogicBot 3000.

Will you allow the new verification requirement to alter your usage? How many pilots do you think will allow it to influence them?

[If it's more than a few, PM me with their names! I want to sell them an Amway distributorship, and talk to them about Scientology]

Who's contract would you rather have? Word-for-word...100%.

Let me know so I can point out areas where it lags ours, and ask you why you hate Jesus and America.

 

How many of the denied verifications were because a pilot was asymptomatic at the time of the mandated visit, as gloopy described?

 

Just being honest about the facts. I can (will have to) live with this contract. I just don't think it's the home run some here portray it as. The cycle will be different next time. All three majors will be negotiating at the same time and the financial situation is unknown. The first one to settle will set the bar and hobble (IMO) the others, this was our golden opportunity. Water, bridge Ba...bye. Moving on. Pay rates will always be within a few percent of the industry. The real gains should be in QOL. IMHO of course.

 

Good post. I agree with your forecast for the next section 6.

 

I'm more concerned with what happens once its denied than how often it happens or if someone maybe didn't get paid. The point is that guys will be pressured to fly sick for borderline, likely unverifiable things under this new system than previously. This obviously won't be an issue as long as your post 100 sick calls are obviously verifiable. And most of the time, dragging yourself in to fly with an unverifiable borderline issue won't lead to anything bad, which is why some will likely go that route rather than find themselves in uncharted waters with nothing but "patient seems completely fine at this time" for a paddle.

Even then it might not be an issue, until and unless they get dirty about it, possibly under a future team. Then it only takes one or two examples to exert massive pressure on the entire group, regardless of outcome.

Again, its not the single biggest issue we face, but we did give them a lot in this area. What we have remaining is still a fairly good benefit, but we gave up a lot and what will they want next time, because they will come for more.

 

Just practice flying sick. L