Viper25

This. Sick abuse is using sick leave when healthy in all regards, for the intention of getting out of having to do work.

Buck Rogers, now it is defined. (This definition was provided to you in this thread multiple times).

midnightpirate

The company knows that sick calls are up. Whether that's a function of people applying the IM SAFE checklist without fear of reprisal or straight-up sick call abuse is anyone's guess

bugman61

If only there was some document somewhere that had an agreed upon definition of what sickness is.

House of Usher

During the NWA/DAL merge, I lost 1,200hrs+ of sick bank. I played by the rules calling in sick only when ill. It was a royal screw job by ALPA and management. A portion of the 1,200hrs+ covers part of my DPMA premiums for the remainder of my career. ALPA said, "See, this is actually a really good deal for you." Unless I fly until I'm 195 yrs old, there's no way I'll ever recover it. What they really meant was, "Gee, sucks to be you."

Lesson learned.

LeineLodge

…unless you actually need DPMA, which serves the same as a large sick bank (accrued by rarely calling in sick over a long career.)

You/we had our NWA sick banks applied to DPMA premiums as you mention, getting access to DPMA in many cases during late career. Delta bubbas had been paying into that fund all along. A year of sick + LTD + DPMA gets you awfully close to your 1200 hours; potentially much more using the FAE lookback.

Oh and you can call in sick 270 hours this year and not impact next years ability to have the same safety net - not so in the NWA system where you would head into next year with 930 hours following a similar event. I wouldn’t trade back given the chance. The good old days weren’t always better.

No need to fly to 95. You’ve been made more than whole.

-a FNWA pilot

House of Usher

That's why we pay DPMA premiums. I've no problem paying premiums. It's seeing one's sick bank go, "Poof!" that's disheartening.

All 5 Stages

My guess is, after the Rona, guys are not flying with "allergies" as much any more. Pre-Rona, flying with sniffles bought you a stern side-eye; post-Rona (hopefully) pilots are keeping their sneezing and sniffling at home. Perhaps our pilot group is more self-aware of our health status, and how that can affect others.

A5S

NuGuy

The most important distinction between disability/DPMA vs a large sick bank is:

1) You are not limited to 12 months of DPMA per "disability" code. You can run sick bank out to exhaustion on one thing. DPMA is limited to one year per code.

2) When you are on DPMA & disability, you are OFF PAYROLL. That means you are a 3rd class citizen, and you're Harvey Watt's problem, not the Company's. That means retiree travel and good luck trying to reach anyone at the company. A sick bank means you are still on payroll, and the company is still responsible for you. Intangilble benefit? Yes. Important distinction? Big yes.

3) 1,800 hour sick bank, which was very achiveable, equates to just over 21 months out at 85 hours, and 2 years at 75 hours. You could modulate the amount you used depending on your situation.

The system benefits different situations in different ways. If you were senior, had burned out all your sick leave, and poof, now granted 240 (which it was at the time) plus new access to DPMA, yea, that was a good deal. If you had a good bank and blammo, not only did they cut it apart, but you paid for the first year out of own your pocket whether you used it or not, and as a bonus you're still geting double charged for each sick call, yea, not so much.

Potato - potato.

Gulfasaurus

It's not sick leave abuse until an arbitrator rules that it is

Vsop

I’ll own up to this. Pre Rona my mind set was different. I had been mentally conditioned to use less sick time from over a decade at the regionals. For a few years post bankruptcy we banked as few as 2 hours/month (aka one 4 day trip/year). The banked time was precious. Whether it was ‘rona/kids/finally getting used to Delta, I now call out more frequently over much more minor things than I did previously.