Sick leave analysis
 

Best I can tell, the pilots are being stand up guys and not calling in sick on the holidays. Seems to me that things are perfectly fine.

Instead of trying to squeeze blood from a stone, they should be thanking us.

Didn't Management lose a billion on fuel hedges? That is over 20 times the amount of sick leave "abuse" increase.(48 million) The comparison of the period ending in 2012 to now is a little skewed since during that period we got an average of 80hrs 100% sick pay. They don't compare the well rate of 92.2 vs 93.9. Only a 1.1% decrease with almost a tripling of available 100% pay sick leave. I think we are doing pretty good.

Those charts prove to me that there is a fairly large percentage of the pilot group who fear the retributions of calling in sick over holidays. They would rather come to work sick rather than visit the CP office and deal with explaining why they called in sick over a holiday.

We've all heard it before, "If you call in sick over a holiday it is a guaranteed trip to see the CP."

If we would get a policy that did not allow the company to call us in or ask for verification for ANY sick calls during the first 100 hours of sick usage and move the renewal date to our anniversary month instead of May, I'll bet the sick usage would even out to about the average.

We need to improve the contract.

"No questions asked" sick call via Internet up to the contractual max hours.

"No questions asked" for calling fatigued or not extending per FAR117.

The charts may contain some useful information for planning when to get a green slip. Probably not the takeaway the company was shooting for.

Charts. What charts? From POS TA2015 roadshows?

Crew Resources monthly letter is now a concession propaganda brochure.

The one we got today had 3 pages of graphs on how we are all using way more sick time than we did a few years ago and the only logical reason is that we are abusing it because over the holidays they see a drop in the amount of sick time usage.

I think they have Al Gore working on sick time usage data on the 4th floor.

Decreased sick time usage over holidays causes global warming.

If you call in sick you're ISIS. Or at least a radical islamicist. Okay, maybe you're just El Niño.

Ah crap. Now I've gotta sell my F-350 Diesel airport truck AND call in sick over holidays? I'm moving to Syria where the taxes are low.

Now I'm kicking myself for wasting my vacation weeks over Christmas and Thanksgiving! I should have just called in sick!

Seems there's a shortage of pilot sick calls over holidays, well, I just want to help with my backpack full of figgy pudding and all!

This is not a shot across the bow my friends!!! It is a kick in the "tea bags"!!!!!! Unbelievable!?!?!???

It's you senior guys that get holidays off with vacation that are the problem. :) All us junior healthy guys that never get sick are flying the holidays while you old sick guys get them off then call in sick before and after the holidays.

I do usually get sick during my vacation, staying up late, drinking too much, out all night and sleeping on the sidewalk in the rain will do that to even a young man, let alone us old farts!:D

Somebody call for my wheelchair, and get me a new Depends!:eek:

Crew resources is out on a limb here with their latest update. They are only interested in sick leave usage because they keep getting "questions" about it... so they say. And it just so happens that "Most of the questions focus on how and when the sick benefit is disproportionately used – and by whom."

But wait! They know the answers to these questions, fear not! Did they interview a bunch of pilots about what it is like flying the line when you are over 50 years old or in your 60s? No. "Answers to these questions are found in the many statistics that we routinely track and monitor related to sick leave."

Thats right. Look at all our charts and graphs and we can tell you why you are so sick all the time. You are being "disproportionate". Shame on you!

And we get to hear more of this drivel in the next few newsletters! Joy!

Pilots are dropping on layovers and even in the seat..... and we are accused of being sick leave abusers?

When was the last time a member of management checked out on company time?

No offense to anyone, but who really cares?

Didn't read the crew resource update, and I have no intention to. Pilot sick leave usage is about as important to me ramp agent sick leave usage.

This is all my fault. Felt horrible Sunday morning and called in sick. The next day this sick leave thing comes out. My bad. :cool:

What he doesn't mention is that these 'questions' are only being asked by some 4th floor cubicle pilots looking to move up into the Senior VP of Sick Leave Monitoring job. They get stock grants too you know, and nobody on the 4th floor is working on Christmas or Thanksgiving!:rolleyes:

Serious question, but when a pilot takes a job on the 4th floor and becomes a 'management pilot', do they remain an active Alpa member? Seems like a conflict of interest in certain scenarios like the one above.

So Crew Resources is now an arm of the company's negotiating team. Can we use the Fuel Hedging guys to help us negotiate? Lot's of money left on the table if they called in sick.

You know what they need to do to quell everyone's angst? Is publish the age of all the people calling in sick, and then run the statistics against any other company that has the same age demographic. And if statistically there is truly a bump in Delta sick usage as compared to all the other companies out there that have the same age demographic, then they would have a leg to stand on. This of course would have to take into account only the sick call itself. And not the drop of a whole trip etc. etc.
I remember in the Air Force, they had this whole thing on sexual-harassment. They beat us over the head and said that the Air Force is awful right now, we even got spoken down to buy some 28-year-old lady from the state telling us how bad we all were as men. And then with a little research we found out that the USAF was right on par with the national average regarding the age of people and amount of instances of sexual abuse.

The sick leave usage spikes according to the company comes immediately after the actual holidays in question, which MAY suggest that some who have worked on the holiday want to get a little time off after.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but it does seem that the company would save itself a lot of grief by just paying premium pay for holidays worked like everyone else. Premium pay cost vs. sick leave usage cost + man hours exerted by crew resources, CPOs et al to address the "issue" would almost be a wash. Problem solved.

Actually, the graphs show sick call ins spiking just before and just after the actual holidays. Makes sense more people call in sick before the holiday... someone else gets the trip either WS/RES/GS. Those folks would be a lot less likely to call in sick on the actual holiday. Your notion of WHY they call in sick in AFTER the holiday... makes sense as well. I'd like to see the secret graphs that include verified/non-verified/age. Considering our average age and what we do for a living I don't think we do too bad. Comparing us to other companies where pilots "bank" unused sick time is an apple vs anvil comparison. People are probably flying sick a lot more often at those companies. Of course, no one tries to track that issue because the trip is covered. OFG

Yes they do remain active ALPA members, with Agency Shop, if they want to be on our seniority list, they pay dues. In fact, back in the days before Agency Shop, when anyone could drop out of ALPA and get a 2% pay raise, all Chief Pilots were required to be ALPA members.

I don't know why, I think it was because DALPA Members would say it was a 'conflict of interest' if the CP was a non-member and about to discipline them.

I do know I talked to a couple CP's and they told me they were told it was a requirement of the job. Not sure about the 4th floor cubicle captains.

Now, at that time (pre 1991) we had a LOT of non-members, (800+)mostly they were North East and Western pilots who were PO'd about the seniority list. When the Pan Am merger was announced, DALPA knew they would have a lot more non-members in the PA pilots, so they got the company to agree to Agency Shop, and we've had it ever since.

As soon as Agency Shop kicked in and the non-members had to start paying a 'contract administration fee' equal to just about the same amount as the dues, a group of PO'd non-members started a drive to replace DALPA with another in house union, called the Professional Pilot's Association, or PPA for short. I had the fun of flying with one of their founding members for months at a time....:rolleyes:.

He even told me I couldn't wear my "No B Scale" tie tack!

Really? Hopefully you are one of the folks that didn't care enough to fill out the latest contract survey ....

The ultimate conflict of interest was when Dwayne Werthless was President of ALPA and on the BOD of NWA.

Just received from DALPA:

Nor did they interview the 30 - 40 year olds with 2 in daycare bringing home EVERYTHING

I'd like them to publish the de-identified top 10 abuse stories.

The charts are too generic.

I'm bagging well north to 200K a year, am trusted with the lives of over a thousand passengers a week, but have to behave like a Walmart stockboy when I see the doctor. I am not going to willingly make this situation any more degrading.

48 million extra a year is a business expense.

It is incredibly degrading to ask a doctor for a sick note. But I think that's the point. It's psychological warfare.

On the one hand, Dickson blabs about our professionalism and contributions. On the other hand, he puts out memos and institutes policies that demean and humiliate us.

Just another kook-aid drinking, money grubbing, dime-a-dozen airline exec paid mostly in stock.

We need "no questions asked" sick provisions in our next TA.

Agreed 100%........Better get dalpa on that........OH, I forgot.......they have their own agenda and that does not include listening to us.........

They are quick to tell us sick leave COSTS them $48 million annually. How about telling us how much they SAVE by all the contractually guaranteed sick time we are leaving on the table?

Furthermore, what percentage of that $48 million is from that elusive "abuse"? None, as far as I can tell, because no one has been fired or disciplined for said "abuse".....

That's a GREAT idea!

In response to all this 'sick leave abuse' nonsense, DALPA should run the 'cost' numbers, if every pilot were to use every minute of sick leave available per our contract, every year, and then run the numbers on what the pilot group actually uses.

Take the difference and throw it in the company's face, tell them;

"Look, the Pilot Group is SAVING YOU $XX MILLION every year in Unused Sick Leave! You can either add that value to our next TA, or you can write each pilot a check each June 1, for his unused sick leave,

OR...you can Shut The Phuck UP about this 'sick leave abuse' nonsesnse!

It DOESN'T EXIST!"

Does anyone remember the sick leave harassment program several years ago? CPO calling guys in.

I bet flight ops has an internal goal of limiting sick leave to less than 40 hours per pilot per year.

The certainly don't budget for anywhere near 100 hours.

I'm glad they responded like this. It's a good sign.

Bingo. Unfortunately, that survey didn't really ask what we didn't want, so I'm not sure they know.


We need to tell them.

Frankly I'm shocked that alpa said anything. Now how about backing that up with restorative action about the current draconian requirements. It sometimes takes an act of congress just to get an appt with a doctor to absolve myself about a condition which is weeks passed. ***?

I'm not a Delta pilot but it seems either Delta provided a healthier work enviroment in the past and the last decade of changes is causing the workers to wear down. The FAA has come out with new guidance on self assessment for aircrew concerning fatigue and readiness to operate aircraft and aircrew are required by regulation to follow them.

The new increased sick usage will soon be the new normal sick leave usage. It appears that not calling in sick in the past means that a sickness in the future will be considered abuse.