Additionally, if your sick call occurs under certain conditions of timing relative to short call, reserve days, vacation, military leave, etc., you can also be required to provide a note just because the chief pilot office wants you to provide a note. That could be the case even if you’ve used zero hours of sick leave in the preceding 12 months.

 

The pension is not coming back....ever. I stopped believing in the sandman and tooth fairy long ago. Evidently you haven't.

You can live in the real world, warts and all, and roll up your sleeves and participate in a process that might be made better (our current DC setup) or you can make irrelevant but tough-sounding diatribes against the tides. Ain't gonna change the tides however.

 

It's not just "used to" - I was taking an British Airways A380 from LHR to ORD a couple of years ago on vacation. I stopped by the cockpit to say hi and chatted a bit. It was a 2 man crew - no rest breaks... and none on the way back either.

 

As I posted that’s the norm in Europe. They don’t do extra crew members and rest breaks.

 

Safety.... amiright?

 

I love y’all’s sick leave accrual, and the reset every year. But the doctor's note provisions are ridiculous, IMO. Kill that turd and it would be a hell of a benefit. Too much latitude for douchey management types to try to intimidate and harass.

 

No kidding. I had to wait for the FAA to get off their asses and approve my medical for over 4 months. Yes we have FAA sick leave but that is not immediate. I had burned almost all my sick leave while working out every day. So for the next 12 months I was informed every time I signed in that if I were to call in sick that I would have to produce a doctor's note. It's ludicrous.

 

What is FAA sick leave.

 

I didn't really want to get into that, but simply put it is paid leave that kicks in precisely because of the government incompetence in dealing with medical issues. In other words, you don't have to burn your own sick leave while waiting for OK City to actually look at your medical issues. I talked with several guys that were waiting for this exact thing. The problem is that there is an approval process in getting it, and Delta's bureaucracy is sometimes just as slow, so by the time you have burned almost all your personal sick leave you get this bennie. Don't get me wrong, it's much better than going down the short term/long term disability road, but it still takes too much time. I called my congressman and complained about the FAA's process and got my medical within about 2 weeks. Not saying that's what did it, but there was an interesting coincidence.

 

Cost trumps safety!