12.16.19 – What You Need to Know About Sick

Monday, December 16, 2019

What You Need to Know About Sick

Navigating This Hotline

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Calling Out Sick

• All sick calls will have a start and end date. (JCBA Section 9.B.2.)
• Whenever you call out sick, Crew Scheduling will remove you on a trip-by-trip basis and close your absences based on the end date provided. (JCBA Section 9.D.4.)
• If you need to extend your absence beyond what was initially requested, you will need to call Crew Scheduling again.
• Extending your absence will appear as a separate sick occurrence in your HI10M. However, Flight Service will bridge your absence if there is no paid activity between sick calls. Doing so will combine all your sick occurrences into one single sick occurrence.

Sick Accrual (JCBA Section 9.C.)

• All Flight Attendants accrue 4.5 sick hours per month
• You will no longer accrue sick hours, once you have reached 1,500 hours in your sick bank
• You must be available* 15 days or more in a contractual month to be eligible to accrue Sick and Vacation.
  

  As an exception, if you are available for less than fifteen (15) days in a contractual month and you still reach 40 hours, you must contact the Flight Attendant Service Center (FASC) to accrue sick and vacation within 60 days of returning.

• Sick accruals are calculated, added, and available in your sick bank on the 1st day of the contractual month.
• Within the month, days between 2 or more consecutive unpaid sick absences will be considered as unavailable if there is no paid activity between the absences. Those days are considered unavailable to the company for the purpose of sick and vacation accrual. FOS will “bridge” or “link” between all unpaid sick absences within the month.

*For the purposes of accruing sick hours, AVAILABLE is defined as any days in which you generate any paid activity. (Vacation, Jury Duty, Sequence, Standby, paid sick, classroom training, etc.)

Available for less than 15 days & reached 40 hours
You were available for 11 days and were paid and credited 45 hours. You called out sick for your trip originating on the 12^th and the 29^th. Because you have no paid activity between the trips, you are considered unavailable from the 12^th through the 30^th. However, you are eligible to accrue sick and vacation because you were paid more than 40 hours, even though you were not available 15 days. You must contact the FASC within 60 days to receive the accrual.

Unavailable for 15 or more days
>You called out sick for three trips and you don’t have enough hours in your sick bank available to cover those absences. All three absences will be coded as unpaid (US).

Since there is no paid activity between absences from the 9^th through the 24^th, you were only considered available for 14 days, and you achieved less than 40 hours, you will not accrue sick and vacation for the month.

• If you run out of sick time in the originating month of a carryover trip, then the newly accrued sick in the next month will not apply to any portion of the trip. The newly accrued sick hours will apply to your first sick absence for a trip that originates in the new month. However, if you have enough sick time to apply to the carryover trip at least 1 min into the new month, then the accrued time will apply to the carryover trip.

Example:
You have a carryover trip at the end of September, totaling 10 hours of pay. Five (5) hours on September 30^th and 4 hours on October 1^st. You have at least 5 hours remaining in your sick bank so your newly accrued hours will apply to the 4 hours on October 1.

Full Month Sick Leave (JCBA Section 9.D.4.)

• If you are out on a paid medical leave for the entire month you should bid in PBS.  You will be awarded a pay purposes only (PPO) line and paid the value of the line.
• If you are out on a paid medical leave for the entire month (paid from sick bank) and you are currently QI, you will not have the ability to participate in the LRD, or to bid in PBS, and you will not receive an award. Your sick bank will be charged the lineholder guarantee of 71 hours. If you would prefer to be paid between 40 and 110 hours from your sick bank, you may contact the FASC to adjust the hours charged to your sick bank.*
• If you would like to participate in the LRD tool, you must be active on the last day of the month prior to the LRD tool opening.

*Please review the monthly Bid Award Summary hotline to verify if you are eligible to hold a low or high line, based on the constraints at your seniority.

Lineholders (JCBA Section 9.D.1.)

Calling Out Sick for a Lineholder Trip

• You will be able to pick up a trip that reports immediately after the scheduled release time of the original trip (paper legality).
• While you are out sick, you may use TTS/UBL and ETB for trip(s) that operate outside the footprint of your absences.

Lineholders Calling Out Sick for Training

• If you are scheduled to attend training and you call out sick, your training will be removed from your schedule and will revert to a day off.
• You must contact Crew Scheduling to call out sick for training.

Lineholders With Sick Hours
If you call out sick on a sequence, your sick bank will be charged with trips missed (value of your sequence).

Lineholders Without Sick Hours
If you call out sick for a trip and you do not have enough sick time to cover the entire value of the trip, you will be considered unpaid on the first day that you have zero sick time.

Example:

You only have a sick balance of 7.30 and you call out sick for your 3-day trip originating on the 1^st. Your sick bank fully covers the 5 hours on day 1, the remaining 2.30 are paid towards day 2, and day 3 of your trip is fully unpaid. 

Because you are unpaid for all of day 3, you are considered unavailable beginning on day 3.

Lineholder to Reserve Transition

• If your carryover sick value from your lineholder month into your reserve month is on reserve days, those hours will be pay and credit (if paid sick) and will count towards your RSV guarantee and RSVCOT (calling out of time).
• If you call out sick for a carryover sequence from your lineholder month into days off (GD/FD) on your reserve month, the hours on reserve days will be pay and credit (if paid sick) and will count towards your RSVCOT (calling out of time). The hours on days off will be PNC (pay no credit) and will be paid above guarantee*

*At this time, the company will pay all hours as pay and credit and, at your request, will move those days off to later in the month. APFA disagrees with this practice.

Reserves (JCBA Section 9.D.2.)

Calling Out Sick for Reserve Duty

• You may call out for one reserve day at a time, a block of reserve days, or multiple blocks of reserve days.
• If you are assigned a trip that is scheduled into one or more flex days and you subsequently call out sick, your sick bank will be charged the value of the sequence, your flex day(s) will remain and you will be restricted from flying over the footprint of the trip. All hours will be pay and credit. In this situation, you may request to move your Flex Day to another date in the contractual month mutually agreed to by Crew Scheduling.
• If you are awarded a trip that is scheduled into one or more flex days and you subsequently call out sick, your sick bank will be charged the value of the sequence, your flex day(s) will not be restored, and you will be restricted from flying over the footprint of the trip. All hours will be pay and credit.
• If you call in sick during your RAP or before your sequence or standby ends, your sick call will begin the same day.
• If you call in sick after a RAP, sequence, or standby ends, your sick call will begin the next day.

Calling Out Sick for ETB Trip

• If you picked up a trip from ETB and call out sick, those hours will be pay no credit (if paid sick) and will not count towards your RSV guarantee and RSVCOT.
• If you pick up a trip from ETB and call out sick and you have no sick hours available, the sick hours will not reduce your guarantee.

Reserves Calling Out Sick for Training

• If you are scheduled to attend training and you call out sick, training will be removed.
• If it was originally a reserve day it will revert to a RSV day and you are not required to be contactable.
• If it is originally a reserve day off (FD/GD), it will revert to a day off.
• You must contact Crew Scheduling to call out sick for training.

Reserves With Sick Hours

• If you have been awarded/assigned a sequence or standby and call out sick (even if your RAP has not yet started and you haven’t yet acknowledged your assignment), your sick bank will be charged the greater of the sequence/standby value or the value of reserve day:
  • 4.10 for a 30-day month
  • 3.56 for a 31-day month
• If you have not been awarded/assigned a sequence and call out sick, your sick bank will be charged the value of a reserve day.

Reserves Without Sick Hours

• If you do not have the necessary sick bank to cover the sick time, the hours will be unpaid and will reduce your guarantee by the daily rate for each calendar day of the trip.
• If you call out sick for reserve days yet you do not have the necessary sick bank to cover the hours, and you would not have been utilized, your guarantee will not be reduced. (Crew comp will make the necessary adjustments at closeout)
• If your sick bank only has hours to partially cover your absence, your sick bank will be charged and will count towards your RSVCOT (calling out of time). You will be considered unavailable on the first day you have zero sick time.

Reserve to Lineholder Transition

Carryover sick value from your reserve month into your line month will be pay and credit (if paid sick) and the hours reflected in your reserve month will count towards both your RSV guarantee and RSVCOT (calling out of time) and the hours reflected in your line month will count towards your credited hours.*

*At this time, the company will pay all hours as pay and credit and will move those days off to later in the month. APFA disagrees with this practice

Additional information regarding sick can be found in Section 9 of the JCBA or you may email [email protected].

In Unity,

Erik Harris
APFA National Contract Chair