georgetg

Bananie, I think it's item 3 that's troubling:

What are the limitations for the company Dr or other health care professional?
I ask because I had my Drs. sick form "denied" twice already...
That is the game the company is playing. They parse the words with a razor and in one instance "denied" my sick leave because the signed and dated Delta sick form from my in-network Dr. that said I was sick and the prescription medication filled were "not specific enough for stating the nature of the illness in general terms"
After many phone calls with the Delta sick leave admin, my LEC rep and Contract Admin nothing got resolved.
ALPA contract admin said the company was right and I should find a new Dr. that will fill out the sick leave form to the companies' liking.
In the end my only recourse was to speak to a Flight Ops manager in person. He was finally able to put the sillyness to rest.

Knowing that's how Delta parses our PWA sick leave language, I am very concerned with the new proposed contract language.

Cheers
george

TED74

This might just be what saves us from the TA. Too easy for ANYONE to see what's in it. Thanks!

mark350

And UAL got this exact concession during bankruptcy! And now we agreed to it during RECORD profits???

CVG767A

This is brilliant. It would be interesting to see what the other guys have that causes their sick usage to be so much lower (assuming it is actually lower).

Howgozit

Did you ask them the question, what if they find something disqualifying at your doctor's visit but you were there for something else. For example back pain, but x ray shows kidney stone. Currently chief pilot doesn't look at your x rays but now AME will. What do you think is going to happen to you? And good luck getting your medical back.

Carl Spackler

Oh holy cow! I thought you were kidding man. Folks, FTB didn't Photoshop this. It's not a spoof. This is the actual Facebook page and it really shows this Air France A380. Seriously!

Intersting however that it is a closed group, but the VAST majority of their 50 members are not Delta pilots. The Facebook page against the TA has over 1500 members, all of them Delta pilots, and also a closed group.

Carl

lineplug

How our NC should have entered the room on day 1:



How they actually entered the room:

LivingTheDream

Our med cert. is THE most important lic. we possess.

Any one who doesn't think the TA's sick leave won't be used against the pilot group to the maximum extent possible is either new to this biz, never had a medical issue or just plain naive.

Probably THE largest of all the concessions in this failure of a TA... all while experiencing the largest profits in HISTORY.

Please read the following from one of our more experienced pilots in this matter:

PROLOGUE

Remember in C2012 when new medical note requirements came up? DALPA said, “The Company can already ask for a note. [So don’t worry].” DALPA went on to say that there were transcripts of the actual agreement with the negotiators so this would not be a problem. Remember what happened? The company went on a rampage demanding notes from many sick calls. In the end, DALPA resolved this issue and we currently are in a steady state.

I do not know the answer to this question, but the question to understand is “Under our current contract, how many pilots are subjected to Section 15B review annually?” My guess is that it is a very small number. (BTW Section 15 is not in the published TA. You should read it.)

We have precedent in both of these situations that will be subject to change as soon as the contract changes. Think about this change and what you would do if you were on the management side.



MY QUALIFICATIONS

MBA Wharton School of Business, Ex McKinsey consultant, Current manager of small New England Psychiatric practice, Current Delta Pilot



PRESENT DAY

Section 14 Small.png

WHAT IS IN A MEDICAL NOTE?


This chart below is part of a reminder card handed out to all doctors in our local hospital. Any doctor will recognize this as the first part of a standard initial visit medical note. When you go to the doctor’s office, someone documents many of the things below. The important part to understand is the PMH (past medical history – which can include whatever you or other doctors share with this doctor – Of Note: IT IS HIPAA NOT HIPPA and doctors do not need you to sign a release to share your medical information with another doctor associated with your treatment under HIPAA), PSH (past social history – which can include almost anything about your past that the doctor asks about or you share), MEDS (all current meds and many times past medications), Family History (where you share all your family medical history), Social History (which can include employment, incarceration, military, and many other things), ROS (review of systems) where you tell the doctor about what hurts, and then any outside medical reports.

Medical Note Format.png



When you sign a release under Section 14 G 2, your release for a “specific sickness” gives DHC potential access to your entire medical and social history.

There is no doctor’s office that is going to redact sections of your medical note and any serious problem requires you to be honest with your doctor about everything if you want proper treatment. Your medical history should be between you, your medical doctors and your AME. Delta has absolutely no place in this.

DALPA will argue that this release is already in Section 15. Remember, section 15B is only for very specific situations related to your FAA certificate, not about justifying a sick absence. You must think like management. By moving this release to Section 14, it will become commonplace for Delta to ask for a medical release and therefore you automatically release your entire medical history to Delta. I cannot foresee the end game in this change, but it is most definitely very bad.

If I were on the other side (DHC), I would start to question every pilot’s medical justification when that pilot breaks the medical threshold. I would question the validity of the content of the doctor’s note justifying a sick absence (allowed by section 14G3). I would require additional information every time.

I audit or read about 80 medical notes a week – granted, many are not what we may experience in our own medical situations, but many are - and I can tell you that in any given note, there is a ton of information that is not related to the “specific sickness” for which you are seeing the doctor. I also spend a lot of time communicating with disability companies. Disability companies almost always question the treatment of the physician and their “standard of care.” It is a very low threshold to disagree with a doctor’s treatment or diagnosis when it comes to a disability company or in this case DHC. Literally any doctor can question some part of another doctor’s note and disability companies do this all day long. Your doctor has absolutely no skin in the game except his or her pride when it comes to justifying your illness for sick pay. No doctor wants to spend time writing more letters just so you can get paid for your diarrhea. I believe it would be best to think of Delta (DHC) as a disability company in that, in the end, their sole purpose is to save the company money.

By changing this section of the contract, we are opening a can of worms. In addition, we, the pilots, are responsible for all medical costs under the new verification unless it is under the “good faith” basis. The cost and time will be significant.

This was the most poorly negotiated section of the TA and is enough to vote NO regardless of any money involved. Anyone over 50 will probably already have encountered a medical problem that has required FAA review. Anyone under 50 will encounter this situation sometime in their career. You do not want to spend countless hours and dollars defending yourself to Delta while trying to get back your medical from the FAA or trying to get paid for a legitimate sick leave. And you certainly do not want Delta deciding that they are “not able to satisfactorily assess the medical basis for the use of sick leave.” (Section 14G3) If you believe for one minute that there was not a purpose in moving the medical release to Section 14, you are sadly mistaken. This will become the mother of all harassment programs for Delta pilots.

scambo1

You better hide boomers family photo, there might be some southwest guys reading about our angst.

Cubdrick

Council 1 (MSP) has released the most comprehensive review yet regarding the goods, bass, ugly, and unknowns.


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