Jet Blue blames WX, pilot rest rules for system meltdown

PhilosopherPilot said:
See previous post. You can't abuse sick leave because we don't have it.
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Of course you do. You just call it by a different name. PTO can only be used if you're not sick when coverage allows. When coverage doesn't allow, the way to get out of a trip is to claim you're sick. It's no different than with any other airline. They've just put a different name on it.
 
Of course you do. You just call it by a different name. PTO can only be used if you're not sick when coverage allows. When coverage doesn't allow, the way to get out of a trip is to claim you're sick. It's no different than with any other airline. They've just put a different name on it.
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Nah, most people save it up and sell PTO back monthly at 1.5 time. It's better to call in unpaid to save up to the level that you can sell it back. That way you can get 1.5 time instead of straight time.

Once you have over 100 hrs of PTO you can sell it back at your accrual rate each month at 1.5 times your base hourly rate. So you can basically sell back 10 hours per month.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
If that's the case, then you've destroyed your own argument about sick time abuse at JetBlue.

There is absolutely zero justification for attendance policies!
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No. People don't call in sick (when not sick) for monetary reasons. They do so to game the swap/drop system. That's why this is unique to JetBlue, and not really relevant to other airline systems.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
No. People don't call in sick (when not sick) for monetary reasons. They do so to game the swap/drop system. That's why this is unique to JetBlue, and not really relevant to other airline systems.
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I didn't say that pilots use sick time for monetary reasons. I said that companies use attendance policies for monetary reasons. And I hate to break it to you, but it's not unique to JetBlue for pilots to use sick time to "game" the swap/drop system. That is a fact of life industry-wide due to airlines understaffing far more than in the past.
 
I must be one of the rare people who don't call in sick to change my schedule. When I leave my company I will have 175 hours of sick time in my bank that is just gone. No $$ back for that. I'm just happy I didn't have to use it.
 
I'm one of them, too. I think I had something like 160 hours of sick time in my bank before my surgery, despite all of the sick calls this past year. I'm still well over 100 hours, I think. But I do understand why someone who hasn't held a weekend off in years sometimes hits a brick wall and needs a break.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I'm one of them, too. I think I had something like 160 hours of sick time in my bank before my surgery, despite all of the sick calls this past year. I'm still well over 100 hours, I think. But I do understand why someone who hasn't held a weekend off in years sometimes hits a brick wall and needs a break.
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Me as well. In some ways I can see that as a legit reason too.

Hope you get better! Surgery is no fun.
 
Todd, your situation is a chronic condition covered by FMLA for intermittent leave. They could not fire you, policy or not. And you don't have to disclose specifics.
 
Most airlines farm out FMLA to a TPA. You contact the TPA, get the paperwork, have your healthcare provider complete it and send it back to the TPA. We've never had a problem, personally. Yes I know Alaska was the airline that was called out in rewriting the regs and in a subsequent law enacted because they said pilots only "worked" 1000 hr/year so they didn't meet the 1250 hr requirement for FMLA.
 
PTO, or sick time is EARNED compensation.

If I call in sick, and I have sick time to cover it, it should NEVER be questioned. That time is mine and I will use it as I please, sick or not.

Now if someone is calling in sick so much as to fully deplete their bank and is a blatant abuser of the system SOMETHING needs to be done. A company has no right to know specifics but they also have the right to a dependable employee. I'm not saying that once your bank is gone you can't call in anymore but the guys/gals that do abuse things are usually pretty obvious and the company knows who they are.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
The issue here at JetBlue is that for years abuse was ignored, and it really got rampant over time. It isn't/wasn't rare. So now because we, the pilots, failed to police ourselves, the company is stepping in to stop the bleeding.

Now that the company has drawn a line, the abuse will stop, and just like you said, it will be very rare. But that line needed to be drawn.
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Huh? If you hire good people and take care of them, there will be no abuse.
So my question is does jetBlue (it is a j in your companies name not a J) need to look at how and who they are hiring or do they need to look at how they are treating their employees?
 
Gonzo said:
Huh? If you hire good people and take care of them, there will be no abuse.
So my question is does jetBlue (it is a j in your companies name not a J) need to look at how and who they are hiring or do they need to look at how they are treating their employees?
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First of all, don't be a Richard, particularly when your don't know WTF you're talking about. JetBlue is branded as both little and big J. The big J is used more often than not, particularly internally or in email titles, etc.

The "abuse" happened because it wasn't discouraged. Ever. So drift happened over time.
 
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