Sick leave policies
 

Can someone please explain these details from your AIP? Thx!

delta doesn’t have a sick bank. We have x sick hours that reset every year. X increases from 50 to 270 throughout your career.

Currently, for every sick call (exceptions apply) after 100 hours in a rolling 12 months, you must provide a note from a healthcare professional.

the new TA changes that to 120 hours and removes some clauses that make notes after 160 hours even more onerous. It also limits the digging CPOs will do (“good faith basis” calls) and improves some provisions for exceptions to the old 100 hour rule.

it’s an overall win.

Thx, what does QHCP mean?

Quality health care provider?

In our Contract 15, sick was a gatekeeper issue for the company. They had a point, but they used the "one guy craps his pants, everybody has to wear diapers approach'. Previous to C15, we had a 'voluntary sick verification' form, wherein we could verify sick hours with a signed 'note/form' from any heath care provider. Some pilots have MD/NP spouses, so they would have thier spouse 'verify' thier sick.

What changed in C15, was those voluntary verifications went away (they were a lot of work for someone in the HQ). Also, a much lowered trigger where a note would now be required for any sick event over that trigger (100 hours in the previous 12 bid periods), and nearly any health care provider could provide the note - over 160 hours where only a "Qualified Heath Care Provider" (QHCP), like a MD/DO could provide the note - no more nurse practitioners or PA's. In addition, there was a carveout for "major bone" breaks, where those hours would be excluded from that 100-hour lookback. There were lots of complaints however, for 'non-qualifying' events like ACL or rotator cuff surgery, which would not meet that exclusion definition, so every single time a pilot got the sniffles for 12 more months they would be required to get a doctors note. Silly. "Minute clinic" providers thought of us as being treated like we were in kindergarten... It was a very unpopular overreach by the company. To top it all off, the company has thee ability to inquire of the nature of the illness if they have a "good faith basis" to question the validity of the illness, and require you to get a Dr note or get those sick hours invalidated/unpaid.

SO, in C19 we have a much broader leeway. The 100-hour trigger has been relaxed to 120 hours, we no longer have to find an actual physician over 160, they must inquire within 3 days of calling in sick for a "good faith basis" inquiry (to allow you to actually go get a note while you are still sick, not a week after you are well), and we will no longer have to call Crew Scheduling by voice to call in sick or well.

Finally, future pandemic or continued Covid sick occurrences will be excluded from that (now) 120 hour lookback for requiring a Dr's note. It's actually a small give to the company, since we had a LOA during Covid to completely exclude all Covid related absences from even using any of our limited sick hours. It was just free sick leave.

Thx!

Filler

Qualified, I believe.

Only good faith basis calls I know of were by New York chief pilot during IROPS.

Ive gotten a couple over the years from ATL. One was for a “Sick-Ok” immediately before a Reserve block - those will often get a GFB call. Mine was deemed valid by the CP (which also excluded those hours from look back).

What is sick-ok? Calling in sick to avoid short call, then calling in well?

While the previous NYC administration was the largest user of GFB calls, they do happen all over the system with regularity.