Just read the memo about Phase 3 activation.

Question for DAL-S guys

If you are on vacation for the entire month of July, are you required to check your company email and complete the distance learning while on your scheduled vacation? If you don't complete it by the deadline, are you taken off flight status and losing your vacation?

Seems pretty crappy if management can make you work on your vacation.

I can see someone having started vacation on 1 July and going on a 30 day cruise. If it were me I wouldn't be checking my company email on my cruise.

 

Don't you remember "Big Bubble"

 

Do you know of anyone in the situation you describe. I doubt a single person would have the whole month off and be on a cruise and unavailable all month. Regardless however all you have to do is contact your chief pilot. You will be required to do the training before your first trip back.

 

I haven't checked my company email in over 4 months. It is not a requirement. I do however get company updates sent to my regualr email. Plus, emails from DALPA tend to repeat the info.

 

In this specific case, no.

However, I have personally had 8 weeks off in a row between a full month of vacation and bidding a 14 day trip early in the month prior to vacation and a 14 day trip late in the month after my vacation. I spent 4 weeks of that out of country, so yes it is possible to be unavailable for one month or longer. Not so much for me as I now have kids, but I know of at least one pilot (not a Captain!) that owns residences in Idaho, Chicago, Hawaii and Colombia. He is also shopping for a residence in Bangkok. Pretty sure he doesn't check his company email ... ever.

There are a lot of DAL-N guys that didn't check their company e-mail on a regular basis, because it just wasn't necessary. All of our schedule change notifications, including assignment to training were done via phone call to primary home number and cell phone if one was provided. In addition, all of the important bulletins for fleet specific ops, general ops, vacation and schedule bidding were available as links on the Home page of ATLAS after you logged on. The only important things I ever received EXCLUSIVELY via company email were:

Confirmation that an ASAP was received
Confirmation that there was no action required after ASAP review
Confirmation that a copy of my physical and licenses was received by Central Admin. (Only because I requested the e-mail)

 

My volume 1 is so colorful now that its fun to try and find the white pages in it.

 

So I guess you never bid for your next schedule in that 8 weeks you were off? I'm sure you got online and looked at your schedule sometime in there.

We're not uptight about these things at Delta. The online training only takes 20 minutes or so - If I had a whole month off, I'm sure I could find 20 minutes in it to ensure I still get a paycheck.

 

Thats the whole point, we could do all bidding without ever going to company e-mail.

You could also just put a standby bid into the system 2 months in advance and let it ride.

There were also several bidding services you could use that charged you a monthly fee or you could have a buddy bid for you, much like the XCM phone tree that I've heard DAL-S guys have in place.

In any case, I'm either on vacation or I am not. Having a company requirement to accomplish online training means I am not on vacation. Glad to see the Chief Pilot can override the payroll issue.

 

Wow, talk about making a mountain out of a molehill! Every pilot knows that the transition is in phases. The basic time table has been out for months. If you want to paint a situation where a pilot could be out of touch for several months I am sure its possible. I have found however that virtually anywhere in the world I can get internet access. If not and a pilot has not completed the training the CP's office will look at his schedule and see the long block of time off. They wont drop his trips and will allow him to complete the training when he gets back. We are wasting bandwidth on this one.

 

Well a molehill at DAL-N was referred to as holes in the contract. Management used to find them quite regularly and try to drive trucks through those holes. Granted we had a very confrontational relationship with labor relations, but that doesn't mean it will never be that way at DL.

Maybe you guys remember Terry Erskine in labor relations. A real ba********. I was glad to see him leave NW. He went to DL. My friends at DL hated him.

In any case the larger question would have been, if management can require you to do distance learning while on vacation, what other work could they force on you under threat of being removed from flight status?

One of these days you will be flying over a molehill that turns into a mountain. Beware of CFIT and beware of an MEC that makes agreements without letting the voting reps see the contract language prior to signing.