flyguy81

My CP said if someone is under contract with another company/agency they’ll honor it, but you’ll go on unpaid leave from SWA. I doubt they’re just going to let you stay home for 5 years because “I had plans to golf or travel”. If you’ve got a legit reason like caring for a sick family member or something, then long term leave is maybe a option....but you’re not going to get paid.

Proximity

What's wrong with the picture is that you have to go appeal to your CP to get unpaid leave. The policy should be that if you do not want to return from ExTO early, unpaid leave should be granted no questions asked. It the same as having to go in and beg for your travel benefits if you are out sick...should be automatic like everywhere else.

Smokey23

I know it sounds like so much hindsight 20-20, but anyone who took an ExTO longer than 2 years, thinking they would actually be out for that long, was a bit delusional. The only circumstance I could see where SWA could go 3, 4, 5 years without needing the ExTO pilots back would be if there was basically no airline industry left to come back to....unlikely as that would have been. I think the company just put it all out there (the up to 5-year ExTOs), during the dark days of last summer, in a semi-panic to get as many takers as possible, knowing all along that they still have you whenever they need you. Having said all that, I hope flyguy81's answer is the offical line from the company...seems like a reasonable compromise.

I guess it's all Big Pharma's fault for being so dang successful with their vaccines!

P.S. I hear what you're saying Proximity, but this whole VSP/ExTO thang was so far outside our contract to begin with, that we don't have a whole lot to stand on.

RckyMtHigh

Yeah, no one is asking to continue to be paid. I was a 5 year guy - I didn't expect that, but to be out less than a year is unexpected as well. We made some big life changes and commitments and extending a couple months (unpaid) to get back to work should be an easy ask of the company, regardless of the reason.

My interpretation at the time was that they would be flexible with return dates as long as you went on unpaid leave. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, they are sticking to the letter of the law. Just gets me more fired up to ensure our contract wording is airtight as we go through negotiations.

PropPiedmont

You do realize that VSP and ExTO are completely outside of our CBA, right? There is nothing to interpret. We could’ve established & signed an LOA for these programs, but didn’t. Not SWA’s fault.

Sorry, it sucks.

Lewbronski

This is correct. It’s not SWA’s fault. It never is. Saying it’s SWA’s fault for anything that we didn’t get wrapped up into our CBA is like blaming the line of thunderstorms that we could’ve deviated around but didn’t for injuring the FA’s. SWA just does what SWA does in the same way that a thunderstorm just does what a thunderstorm does. If we expect a thunderstorm to be a gentle, fluffy cotton ball because that’s what we thought thunderstorm clouds were when we were kids, then we’re not living in reality.

Tankerhead

Except kids don’t exhibit Stockholm syndrome towards clouds.

e6bpilot

You had to know when you signed up for EXTO that SWA could recall you at any moment. Why, when they need bodies, would they grant LOAs?
Sorry, it does suck, but that's the primary reason a lot of us didn't take it.

Grumpyaviator

True, there was nothing more than a Q&A with a lot of wiggle room. It’s a disappointment for the guys having to come back, but that’s a product of a quick rebound, for which we should be thankful.