United Airlines Flight Attendants Face Harsher Punishment For Calling In Sick Too Late Before Duty

An arbitration board has sided with United Airlines and will allow the carrier to punish flight attendants who call in sick less than eight hours before their duty time with multiple forms of discipline. While that policy comes with practical downsides, it is the policy that flight attendants agreed to in their collective bargaining agreement.

Mediation Board Rules Against United Airlines Flight Attendants, Allows United To Punish Those Who Call In Sick Too Late

The AFA-CWA, the union representing flight attendants at United Airlines, informed their members that the System Board of Adjustment, an arbitration panel, ruled in favor of United in a grievance brought by the union.

The union was upset that flight attendants could be punished with both a performance warning (a negative remark placed on a flight attendant’s permanent record that could be used as grounds for termination) and attendance points (accumulating too many attendance points in a year could also result in discipline or termination) for the same violation: calling off duty less than eight hours before the flight.

I too would have also voted with the (unanimous) majority on the board.

That’s because the contract does not prohibit this.

When a Flight Attendant is unable to take her/his flight, she/he will notify the Company’s designated crew desk in not less than eight (8) hours, except in an emergency, before the flight is scheduled to depart, and will in any event give as much notice as possible.

The arbitration board was not concerned about the “double” punishment. As the AFA conceded, “This was because there are other situations when a Flight Attendant may receive both attendance and performance discipline for the same event.”

What situations? Sick leave abuse.

While I personally think it is rather foolish to ask flight attendants to come in when sick or face discipline, maybe their unions will do a better job of negotiating next time…instead of fighting not to enforce language, they agreed to in the first place.

It’s really sad that so many flight attendants at United abused sick leave (more recently, calling in sick on weekends or holidays), a separate issue that forced United to take a more aggressive stand in requiring doctor’s notes. The “this is why we can’t have nice things” attendance policy applies here…United was not wrong to push back against a 23% uptick in sick calls last summer that occurred only on weekends.

Responding to the abuse of those calling in sick with accountability mechanisms also outlined in the contract is fair game.

The union recommends flight attendants call in sick early:

We recommend that if you are sick, you provide the Company with notice and call on sick as soon as you know you are too sick to work. This provides schedule integrity and provides other Flight Attendants the ability to pick up the pairing or ample time for the sick leave pairing to be assigned to a Reserve.

And while it may be aggravating to use a sick day when you end up feeling just fine as the shift approaches, this way gives United more time to find a replacement. A day to rest is not always bad, even if your body could have handled the work.

CONCLUSION

I don’t personally support United’s strict sick policy (as View From The Wing noted, a requirement to call out farther in advance seems like it would lead to greater absenteeism), but I understand why United has implemented it. I also understand why the AFA fought against it, but it was a weak argument that was properly overruled when the contract clearly allows for this kind of “dual” discipline with sick leave abuse.

My takeaway is that if employees were most honest about being sick, none of this would be necessary.

> Read More: United Airlines Declares Victory In Campaign To Reduce Sick Leave Abuse By Flight Attendant