That doesn’t make it right to require a doctors note from employees who are regarded as professional. We sleep on the same bunks, different hotel rooms in various countries where the food is not the best sometimes. We can get sick at anytime. A note shouldn’t be required period

 

Every time I ask for a sick note, my doctor laughs. Says. “You have all that responsibility, but they treat you like a grade school kid.”

 

It’s a pretty simple decision for most non-trolls and pilots who care about their livelihood and employability.

If you’ve had the third party vendor contact you for a doctor’s note, many pilots will decide not to use sick time in the near future when they are marginally sick ie sniffles or at the beginning of a possible cold due to the uncertain negative ramifications.

Example - If you’ve had the bad luck of actually being sick on Thanksgiving or Christmas and accumulated an unknown amount of points for using sick time then, what do you do when you when you have a runny nose and cough in March? Easy decision, hop into the jet with the OP and blast off. He may not like it, but he is not the one who will be riding to OKC or ATL or wherever the compulsory medical evaluation is scheduled after the subjectively requisite points are racked up.

Same scenario with sick time on a single departure line that crosses one or more of the verboten holidays and accumulates many points (how many? Good question!). After burning through that year’s worth of sick hours and getting a doctors note request and a call from one’s manager, what happens 3 or 4 months later when you catch a bit of the crud from a family member? Exactly - see you at the folder.

One of the trolls here who most people have blocked wrote that his previous employer has unlimited sick time in their contract and this is only about greed - pretty amazing stuff. You will be a management guy one day that is given a nickname that nobody will forget (and not because your spelling and grammar are so strange) . But this is not greed, it is simple economics. This is about the most efficient use of scarce resources. The scarce resource is not sick time, it is gainful employment at the best flying job in the industry which is put in jeopardy by using a contractual benefit. The decision is easy for many - threats of discipline and termination compel pilots to fly when not 100% well, despite sick hours sitting in their bank.

I would never judge a fellow pilot here for flying when under the weather or with allergies going on or sniffles and cough. I have not seen his secret file and do not know what he’s gone through or is concerned about with discipline or points accumulation. If sick time usage was truly a non-jeopardy event, I would think differently about his decision to fly when not 100% like the OP was complaining about. In the meantime, this is the nature of our contract and the economics of human behavior. DR K

 

My gripe with people to coming to work sick is that it turns into me getting sick and ruining a vacation trip I had planned and my daughter catching what I have and spreading it to her gymnastics camp friends, who take it back to their family, etc, etc. If you are sick, take yourself out of circulation until you’re better, end of story...now, as a far as sick policy, our union should file a grievance for every single request the company makes for a sick note, make it a pain in the neck for THEM to ask for a sick note...they must have “a good faith and objective reason to question a pilots use or attempted use of sick leave”...make them show their reasoning to require a doctors note.

 

PG - Personally, I totally understand your frustration with getting sick from a fellow pilot and the real world implications in your life away from work.

Respectfully, I disagree that it if you are sick you can stay home and that is the “end of the story”. With this contract, it is very much just the beginning of the story.

I would bet many pilots have a dialogue with themselves or with their spouses while they are staring at the computer screen thinking about checking the box. They question if they will be required to get a note or have to see a doctor after the fact and do they really and truly feel bad enough to justify the hassle and scrutiny of hitting the submit button. It is a personal decision because this can affect their professional lives - the negative impact of using sick time stems directly from the company’s interpretation of your timing and decision making. If a pilot has had other disagreements with management that resulted in letters in their personal file, all the more reason not to use sick time and face more jeopardy. Even when pilots in good standing err on the side of caution and go to work, your plans are unfortunately the collateral damage.

Doesn’t it seem backwards that erring on the side of caution means going to work instead of staying home when you don’t feel well? That is how this business plan is structured.

Do you know if the Union tracks the number of sick trips and percentage of doctors note requests to ensure the company wasn’t overtly discouraging proper sick day usage? Maybe it’s only a threat to a tiny portion of us and our perception is not justified.

I’m sorry again that your family plans were impacted, but this seems like a situation that is here to stay. DR K

 

Too bad that the MEC already agreed to the points system years ago. We even went through the last negotiations without addressing it. The MEC started a grievance when the points system first came out. Then they agreed to the final points system, but the specifics were not to be disseminated.

So, there won't be any grievance unless the company strays from the agreed upon points system.

 

I mean, OK, if you’re one of those people that call in sick 6 or 7 times a year, then get sick and you are worried that 8th call might do you in, fine...I get it. I’m talking about people that only use sick 3 to 4 times a year, you’re NOT gonna lose your job for a sick call

 

Which is a crying shame...there should be at least 100 open grievances with the company at all times...

 

let me get this straight. We have pilots that actually think that we should be able to call in sick an infinite amount of times and never have to produce a doctors note?

 

It really is just a classic example of the rotten few ruining it for everyone.