United Airlines has just updated its policy for all flight attendants, and the union is claiming that this is a blatant violation of the current contract (thanks to @xJonNYC for flagging this).
United updates weekend sick policy for flight attendants
This weekend, United informed flight attendants of an updated policy for all paid and unpaid sick calls. Effective immediately and until further notice, all flight attendants who call in sick for reserve or trips departing on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, are required to submit an absence certificate.
The airline claims that this decision is due to a significant increase (of up to 23%) in sick calls over weekends this summer. The airline is suggesting that people are misusing sick leave, because they want to have fun on weekends in summer, rather than working.
The airline is now requiring flight attendants to “provide verification of an incapacitating illness from an accredited physician when making a sick call.” The airline states that it “never wants you to come to work when you’re ill, but misuse of sick time means other flight attendants have to cover those trips, and our customers are at greater risk of travel disruption.”
It seems that this has nothing to do with the current operational mess that United is dealing with, due to IT issues on Friday. After all, if that were the case, this wouldn’t be implemented just for weekends.
Clearly some United flight attendants are misusing sick leave here to have their “hot girl summer,” or whatever. So I get why United is trying to stop that. At the same time, requiring a doctor’s note also seems like a waste of collective resources. For example, there are plenty of situations where you have a fever and know you have a cold, but there’s no need to actually see a doctor, as you just need time to get better.
Union accuses United of violating contract
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents United’s roughly 28,000 flight attendants, has accused the airline of blatantly trying to violate its contract, and plans to fight this. The union makes it clear that the contract that flight attendants have only allows the airline to require an absence certificate around July 4th and around the Christmas holiday period. It says nothing of Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays.
The union has filed a grievance with the company to get this policy reversed. While this will take time, the union is telling members to keep records and receipts of any resulting costs, such as co-pays, which would have otherwise not been incurred.
The union has quite some harsh words for management regarding this:
Management couldn’t be bothered to wait until this unprecedented crisis was resolved to blatantly violate our Contract; they had to do it right now, in the midst of the chaos. This is a clear indication of just how tone-deaf management is. Upon informing the Union just this afternoon about the new requirement and the forthcoming announcement, MEC President Ken Diaz told them in no uncertain terms it is a violation of our Contract that would be grieved, yet they moved ahead anyway. This is also a reflection of the ongoing state of deteriorating labor relations within the company.
All those meaningless phrases like, “Good Leads the Way” and “Core4”, continue to be just that, meaningless. Management’s actions are reprehensible. While extremely frustrating, management has made up and then implemented these new rules in violation of our Contract, but we must comply with them in order to avoid management taking “disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.”
Assuming the union’s interpretation of the contract is accurate, and there’s no clause about management being able to require an absence certificate over other periods, then it does indeed seem like this is a blatant contract violation.
Of course it’s worth emphasizing that relations between management and the union are especially bad right now, as a new contract is being negotiated. United flight attendants will shortly cast their ballots for a strike authorization vote, which virtually everyone will vote in favor of.
Bottom line
United Airlines has updated its sick policy for flight attendants, and is now requiring an absence certificate for any sick calls on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The airline claims this is due to a major uptick in sick calls on weekends this summer.
While that might be true, the union is arguing that this is a contract violation, and that the company can’t require an absence certificate, except around July 4th and the Christmas holiday. I’m curious to see how this situation evolves…
What do you make of United’s updated sick policy for flight attendants?
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