Huh? APA?

Do not understand your connection.

 

Ditto same experience here...

The antibiotic prescribed for my sinus infection "could be for anything" and "isn't specific to the illness" is what I got from the verification gatekeepers...

I didn't expect to get the level of runaround I did.

"sick call" signed by the doctor is not a good enough reason for verifying sick leave...
A medication that isn't specific to a single indication isn't sufficient to "verify" sick leave.

It's nor a rumor at all....
This is the new Delta.

Cheers
George

 

The author has hit on all the 737s quirks. There are no other ones to mention. Ground school is over, time for your checkride.

 

Johnso,

Several days ago you made a statement about how many times the company has asked people to verify illness after calling in sick.

You produced numbers that were mentioned in an ALPA meeting that showed the numbers having decreased significantly.

Mind reposting those?

The anecdotal instances reported on the old board and this board would seem to greatly contradict the claim.

Please distinguish between good faith basis claims and regular verification. The later seems to have a constant stream of near harassment regarding prescriptions, and what constitutes a description. This then forces the pilot to return to the medical professional to attempt another verification.

 

Thanks to you and George, I stand corrected. The Company should not be effectively calling people a "liar" when in fact common sense suggests; "if the man went to the Doctor, he is sick." Obviously an antibiotic is a prescription to treat a bacterial infection. Whether contagious fluid is coming out of your nose, or other parts of your anatomy ... what makes travelling and being in a command seat of approximately $5 Billion in liability exposure seem like an idea anyone would want to hit EXECUTE on?

This is harassment, moreover it is dumb, to the point that the Company is wasting more money on investigatory work than it is obligated to pay anyway. It does not take many $70,000 a year staff and $150,000 to $300,000 a year Chiefs to add up to some serious money to administer what appears to be a pointless exercise.

If it happened to me, as a life long loyal Delta employee, I would be offended.

 

Janwp and George,

Did either of you file an FCR or engage Alpa in regards to harassment? It just seems like they went overboard with you two. If/when I call in sick I don't want to go through the same issues you've both had. I'm not sure I'd be civil with the folks on the other end of the telephone!!!

 

Further, if it happened to these folk who we know are good guys in an internet sort of way ... what about the much larger number who have not spoken up?

Yeah, please make sure your Reps are aware.

 

The leverage that the company is trying to use lies in the following:

23.S.5. A long call pilot:
b. must be able to report for an assigned rotation which reports no earlier than 12 hours from the first attempted contact by Crew Scheduling.
c. must be able to report for a rotation within 12 hours of first attempted contact for conversion to short call.

What SD was basically saying in his letter was this - if you don't acknowledge your assignment outside the 10 hour window then you are no longer "able to report for an assigned rotation" and are therefore in violation of 23.S.5.b. So even if you follow the contractual acknowledgement guidance to the letter, you can still be in violation of the contract

At first blush, I was thinking ALPA had the leverage here. Now, I'm not so sure

 

Yes my rep and CA were fully engaged but unable to positively affect the outcome other than to recommend "go back to the doctor and convince him to write something other than "sick visit."

When I reminded them that the doctor was unwilling to list any specific medical reason on the sick leave verification form due to his [possibly unfounded] fear over HIPPA law implications, my rep and CA suggested I should find another doctor.

It was only once I spoke to a assistant chief pilot, on my own, that I was able to find an end to the madness...

Quite frankly the whole process left me feeling like I worked for American, not Delta...

Again the best takeaway suggestion/advice came from the CP office: Pre-fill out the entire sick leave verification form and just have the doctor sign it...

Cheers
George

 

DAPLA codified the sick leave harassment program in the last TA. They have no obligation to help you. I overheard a CP complaining about the list he gets EVERY MORNING of pilots he has to call over this. DALPA has washed their hands of this in C2012. It's all on you now. And a reminder to anyone being harassed... besides calling your reps (now basically a useless exercise) make a call to the FAA and explain the trouble the company is giving you about calling in sick. If something happens out on the line, and you are sick, at least you'll have that to fall back on.