11.09.22 – 10-Hour Rest Goes Into Effect December 2, 2022

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

10-Hour Rest Goes Into Effect December 2, 2022

Last week, APFA received confirmation that the Company will implement Flight Attendant FAR 10-hour minimum rest with sequences originating on Friday, December 2nd and beyond. The long-awaited increase from 8-hour minimum rest to 10 hours has been years in the making.

The Company has moved to compliance a month ahead of the deadline issued by the FAA, but management isn’t willing to commit to building domestic layover rest times above the new FAR minimum. Current contract language in JCBA 11.J provides for no less than 9:30 hours of scheduled layover rest (8-hour FAR minimum rest + 1:30 buffer). With the new 10-hour FAR minimum rest, logic dictates that rest times should be consistent with the long-established practice of scheduling domestic layover rest with a 1:30 buffer. Doing so would mean domestic scheduled layover rest of no less than 11:30 and would ensure that in most cases Flight Attendants are able to spend those ten hours resting at a hotel.

We want to share how this will impact your schedules, beginning with the December 2022 bid month. Here are the major points:

• Our contractual pay protections are now worth much more. Many JCBA pay protections are predicated on Flight Attendants being FAR illegal. Starting December 2nd, you will be eligible for pay protections when scheduled rest goes below 10 hours, and are subsequently illegal through no fault of your own (JCBA 10.K).
• 10-hour rest will not be reducible by Flight Attendants or the Company. This means the Company will never be able to force a Flight Attendant to have less than 10 hours rest from release to report, either on a layover or at home base. This also means Flight Attendants will not be able to waive rest to less than 10 hours under any circumstances.
• Monthly trip construction will look much like it has for the last several months. Earlier this year, crew planning began building allocated sequences in anticipation of the new rule. However, as we noted above regarding minimum layover rest, the company has finalized December allocations and sequences were not built with the buffer in place for scheduled layover rest. For December, 3.8% of domestic narrow body sequences are scheduled with layover rest between 11-12 hours, and .3% with less than 11 hours scheduled layover rest. This is unacceptable. We will continue to insist that the company honor the intent of the language in 11.J and commit to scheduling domestic layover rest at no less than 11:30.
• Flight Attendants still maintain eight (8) hours behind the door. While 10-hour minimum rest is from release to report, the Company is still required to give you eight (8) hours behind the door on a layover. The APFA has proposed 10 hours behind the door on a layover in negotiations. The Company has rejected the proposal at this time.
• Contractual home base rest buffers will now be based on the FAR 10-hour minimum rest. This means you will not be able to waive below 11:30 (10-hour FAR min rest + 1:30 buffer) when bidding or picking up domestic and most NIPD trips in PBS/TTS/UBL/ETB.For example, the domestic default scheduled home base rest is 11:45. With the new minimum rest rule, you may only waive down 15 minutes to 11:30. This will increase the required minimum rest when backing up trips (e.g., multiple pairings, ODANs, etc.)
• ODAN sequence construction will not change. However, it may be harder to back up ODAN trips because of the increased FAR rest.
• Double-up buffers will be unaffected. Since there is no scheduled rest between two sequences contained within the same duty period in a double-up, the new FAR minimum rest will have no impact. You will still need the applicable minimum rest before and after a double-up.

APFA Contract & Scheduling Desk
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In Solidarity,

Jeff Petersen
APFA National Contract Chair
[email protected]

Marti McMillan
APFA National Scheduling Chair
[email protected]