Preventing fatigue call abuse

[jrh]

What measures are in place at your shop to prevent pilots from abusing fatigue calls?

At my operation (on-demand 135) we've had an extremely loose approach to fatigue calls. Basically, if a pilot drops the F-word, they're taken off the day's flying, no questions asked. It doesn't count against the pilot in any way. No tracking system, doesn't get deducted from the pilot's paid time off bank, etc. It's really been on the honor system to only call in if you've had a rough few days of work and truly need a break.

Lately this system has gotten some serious abuse. A pilot called in fatigued on the last day of five days off to report fatigued for an early morning departure the following day, another pilot called in fatigued two days in a row (with a relatively light flying schedule leading up to this) and so on.

What sort of checks and balances have you seen to prevent abuse? I've been researching fatigue policies and found some great research in things like the ICAO Fatigue Mitigation Reports, but there is little mention of preventing abuse.

 

[Ian_J]

At a certain airline it works like this.

All fatigue calls = off the trip no questions asked.

Pilot files a report describing the circumstances.

Report goes to a committee made up of pilots and management. If the cause of the fatigue is determined to be operational in nature, no sick time charged and pilot is paid. If not operational, sick time is charged.

If a pilot has a lot of fatigue calls, management inquires if there’s anything that can be done to help their situation.

 

[ppragman]

Basically, if a pilot drops the F-word, they're taken off the day's flying, no questions asked.

basically, this is how you should do it. Track who's doing it so that you can figure out what's up if you have a free loader, but yeah. The problem here is an interview problem - hire for integrity and it will never get to this point.

 

[SteveC]

We were lucky in that I did not suspect an abuse of fatigue calls. (In my ideal world…) We were working towards pilots working proactively with schedulers to avoid those “legal but really not smart” situations, and that took management backing of the ability to call fatigue “no-questions-asked”.

Ian’s process above sounds workable for larger operations, but for a smaller 91/135 operation I think I would tweak it a little. I would not do the decision making thing on using sick time, as that can feel like possible retribution in a small group where anonymous evaluations are impossible.

I would institute the reporting portion though.

“We are seeing an increase in fatigue calls, and in the interest of reducing fatigue-inducing situations from our operations we are requesting your assistance. Our new Fatigue Call Report (see attached) is intended to ask you for the important information needed to improve our fatigue reduction program. We would like your help understanding the factors leading up to your fatigue, as well as your thoughts on what could/should have been done differently to have prevented it. The key to making this system work is for both pilots and management to understand what real-world factors, both company induced as well as personal life factors, are affecting our operation, and using that understanding for us both to respond with changes as appropriate. (This reporting process will be managed by the Director of Safety, using the same pilot protections as our other safety initiatives.)”

[In real life I’d rewrite the above numerous times, with input from other key personnel (including non-management pilots), to make sure the message wasn’t misconstrued. Not getting paid for this stuff anymore, so you get what you paid for…hopefully you get the direction I was trying to go with this. ]

 

[CFI A&P]

@Ian_J’s has the way to do it. The report generates an investigation to see if it was operational in nature or personal. Operational would be a delayed flight pushing the crew into a period in which they’re not properly rested for. Or rest interrupted by a something like a hotel fire alarm.

Then there are obvious cases of abuse when a pilot is looking for more down time in a desirable overnight. Vegas because they’re a gambler, or in the beach in the Caribbean, or they have a companion waiting for them in that city. Especially if the flying they’ve had was normal, or light with minimal impact on their circadian rhythm.

If operational, company covers it. If personal, deduct PTO or some other means to discourage future abuse.

 

[DE727UPS]

A pilot called in fatigued on the last day of five days off to report fatigued for an early morning departure the following day, another pilot called in fatigued two days in a row (with a relatively light flying schedule leading up to this) and so on.

What Ian J describes is how UPS does it. With your first example above, it could have been a baby keeping him up all night (heard that one before) but I'd say pilot should take steps to fix that problem. The honorable thing would to be use sick and not fatigue after days off. That one is pretty sketchy. The second one you gotta consider body clock flip flops or hotel issues. UPS took you off the schedule with a phone call but part of that call was the why and that's legit. Both FAT calls in my 31 year career were hotel issues. Staying at the best hotels is a small price to pay for a crew to get good rest. To reduce sick leave abuse UPS buys off your sick leave in excess of 80 hours, if I remember right, once a year. Added up to a pretty sizeable check.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

What measures are in place at your shop to prevent pilots from abusing fatigue calls?

Sorry, you want to what? You're questioning your pilots' self-certification and assessment of their fitness for duty?

At my operation (on-demand 135) we've had an extremely loose approach to fatigue calls. Basically, if a pilot drops the F-word, they're taken off the day's flying, no questions asked. It doesn't count against the pilot in any way. No tracking system, doesn't get deducted from the pilot's paid time off bank, etc. It's really been on the honor system to only call in if you've had a rough few days of work and truly need a break.

Good, but that which isn't tracked isn't managed, and it sounds like the system doesn't do any tracking of 'why' the pilot is fatigued (keep reading).

Lately this system has gotten some serious abuse. A pilot called in fatigued on the last day of five days off to report fatigued for an early morning departure the following day, another pilot called in fatigued two days in a row (with a relatively light flying schedule leading up to this) and so on.

I mean, these aren't by themselves abuses of a fatigue program. In my time as a rep I've talked to people who were up with sick children the entire night before a four-day and had to avail themselves of the fatigue program, and it's also conceivable that a layover hotel could screw you for sleep two nights in a row (in fact, that's happened to me personally, fire alarms and all).

Anytime a pilot avails themselves of the fatigue program, they should be required to complete some sort of report that details the circumstances. This report isn't for purposes of discipline, but to ensure that systemic issues are identified and addressed. That which isn't measured won't be meaningfully managed.

What sort of checks and balances have you seen to prevent abuse? I've been researching fatigue policies and found some great research in things like the ICAO Fatigue Mitigation Reports, but there is little mention of preventing abuse.

I mean, putting people on the hook PTO wise for events that a committee—composed of a chair, a pilot representative and the most indifferent management pilot you can find—determines were within the crewmember's control (or outside of the carrier's control, at least) might be a good way.

But 'fatigue abuse,' at least where I've worked, isn't a thing. At one airline the abuse was the other direction, as they just...didn't pay fatigue calls. (on average, 33% were reimbursed at SkyWest)

 

[FlyChicaga]

One side note that applies to fatigue calls and sick leave use. I vehemently support changing the term “sick time.” That term causes one to believe that the time should only be used when you are “sick.” But what do we mean by sick? Flu? Sinus infection? What about mental distress? Under the IMSAFE checklist mental stress would be a no-go item, but is it for sick time usage at your company? If the aviation industry is going to take mental health seriously, maybe it’s time to reanalyze the term as it applies to benefit time.

Where I work, we earn sick time that be used for us or our family members. If I need to call off to take care of a sick child, I can do that with my benefit time. We are given an additional annual allotment of 60 sick days that be used for only me to cover extended illnesses or off-duty injuries. These days do not carry over. If you run out of sick time and call in sick, you just don’t get paid for those days you are off.

As this applies to the airline industry, if companies followed this model and created a separate sick bank, that bank could be used to deduct fatigue calls that were not deemed to fall under the fatigue policy. It would encourage those who are fatigued but don’t want to potentially lose sick time to call off, and those who abuse fatigue calls would slowly lose their sick time and eventually lose pay.

“Sick time” really needs to become “wellness benefit time.” Physical, mental, emotional. It’s these types of contract items that really improve a pilots quality of life, not just the pay rate tables. I think you are seeing that played out in several threads as of late.

 

[Screaming_Emu]

What measures are in place at your shop to prevent pilots from abusing fatigue calls?

At my operation (on-demand 135) we've had an extremely loose approach to fatigue calls. Basically, if a pilot drops the F-word, they're taken off the day's flying, no questions asked. It doesn't count against the pilot in any way. No tracking system, doesn't get deducted from the pilot's paid time off bank, etc. It's really been on the honor system to only call in if you've had a rough few days of work and truly need a break.

Lately this system has gotten some serious abuse. A pilot called in fatigued on the last day of five days off to report fatigued for an early morning departure the following day, another pilot called in fatigued two days in a row (with a relatively light flying schedule leading up to this) and so on.

What sort of checks and balances have you seen to prevent abuse? I've been researching fatigue policies and found some great research in things like the ICAO Fatigue Mitigation Reports, but there is little mention of preventing abuse.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily call your examples abuse without more information. A lot of my fatigue calls when viewed from the surface don’t look that great to those sitting at a desk (ie 24 hour layovers).

A fatigue program is extremely important and I’d never abuse it, but I’d be careful pushing anything that’s even remotely close to punitive unless it’s extremely obvious that it’s being abused.

Educate the pilot group that it’s a sacred program, but also look at anything in the system that could help avoid the same situation from occurring again.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

At a certain airline it works like this.

All fatigue calls = off the trip no questions asked.

Pilot files a report describing the circumstances.

Report goes to a committee made up of pilots and management. If the cause of the fatigue is determined to be operational in nature, no sick time charged and pilot is paid. If not operational, sick time is charged.

If a pilot has a lot of fatigue calls, management inquires if there’s anything that can be done to help their situation.

This is how we have done it at my 3 121 stops. @jrh you definitely should have some sort of fatigue mitigation system in place. Not to keep your thumb on the pilots, but to track trends. Make fatigue reports mandatory and setup a monthly or quarterly management meeting where they are reviewed.

 

[Inverted]

Fatigue calls should be a no-jeopardy, no-questions-asked policy in terms of questioning the fatigue call. The company should track them to see if there are trends or any red flags with regard to scheduling practices.

 

[JordanD]

Where I work, we earn sick time that be used for us or our family members. If I need to call off to take care of a sick child, I can do that with my benefit time.

The ULCC I worked at explicitly said that this was permitted in the contract and I really liked that, I wish it was more common. I had more than one instance where I absolutely had to get home now to take care of my wife since we had no immediate family within 6 hours. Current shop does have some allowance for this, but I feel like it's a little more complicated than it should be.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily call your examples abuse without more information. A lot of my fatigue calls when viewed from the surface don’t look that great to those sitting at a desk (ie 24 hour layovers).

I'd honestly say that's a fair number of my fatigue calls in my career. Sometimes, for whatever reason and not necessarily through anyone or anything's fault, you just can't get to sleep, even when you're dead tired. My theory is once you hit a certain point being awake your body is like "ok, we must NEED to be awake for some reason, I'm gonna keep this guy up." Having to worry about being punished for calling in would probably only make someones mind race and make the problem even worse.

 

[CFIT99]

Fatigue calls should be a no-jeopardy, no-questions-asked policy in terms of questioning the fatigue call. The company should track them to see if there are trends or any red flags with regard to scheduling practices.

yup agreed, hey look this double red-eye to SJU-MIA-PHL with a 3 hours sit has 72% more fatigue calls....maybe we should change this pairing.

the other side:

Hey Kieth, we see you call in fatigue every other Friday for the past 3 months....whats going on bro?

 

[BEEF SUPREME]

At a certain airline it works like this.

All fatigue calls = off the trip no questions asked.

Pilot files a report describing the circumstances.

Report goes to a committee made up of pilots and management. If the cause of the fatigue is determined to be operational in nature, no sick time charged and pilot is paid. If not operational, sick time is charged.

If a pilot has a lot of fatigue calls, management inquires if there’s anything that can be done to help their situation.

This is how it works at my shop.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

The ULCC I worked at explicitly said that this was permitted in the contract and I really liked that, I wish it was more common. I had more than one instance where I absolutely had to get home now to take care of my wife since we had no immediate family within 6 hours. Current shop does have some allowance for this, but I feel like it's a little more complicated than it should be.

Oddly enough I did spend a little bit of this morning looking at California 'state sick' and kin care and the like. PFMC does a surprisingly good job of documenting the process.

 

[jrh]

For those who mentioned time off banks, we don't differentiate between sick time, personal time, vacation time, etc. It's simply a bank of Paid Time Off for whatever the pilot wants/needs.

For those wanting more details of the incidents I mentioned, the pilot calling in after five days off was calling because he arrived home late from a personal trip on an airline flight that had been delayed a few hours. To me, that's clearly not what a fatigue call is intended for. Obviously we don't want a pilot flying if they're not fit to fly, but there needs to be a deduction of PTO in cases like a lack of planning on the pilot's part.

The other pilot calling in two days in a row was at home, not in a hotel. I don't know many details beyond that.

Our most experienced flight coordinator says anecdotally, the past few months have been the worst she's seen in several years of working with us, although we're flying at the same pace as always. Certain pilots have a reputation amongst the coordinators and it becomes obvious they're using the system to their benefit.

I'll work on improving the system. Lots of good ideas here regarding reporting and analyzing reports.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

For those wanting more details of the incidents I mentioned, the pilot calling in after five days off was calling because he arrived home late from a personal trip on an airline flight that had been delayed a few hours. To me, that's clearly not what a fatigue call is intended for. Obviously we don't want a pilot flying if they're not fit to fly, but there needs to be a deduction of PTO in cases like a lack of planning on the pilot's part.

Sounds like your pilot had a plan, which then dutifully went sideways because "have you seen the weather this summer?" If it should have been a better plan, then the conversation is that there should have been a better plan—because this is still what a fatigue program is for, ensuring pilots do not operate fatigued.

In the moment, it matters not why the pilot isn't fit to fly; it matters that they disclosed same and did not go flying.

 

[Ian_J]

For those who mentioned time off banks, we don't differentiate between sick time, personal time, vacation time, etc. It's simply a bank of Paid Time Off for whatever the pilot wants/needs.

For those wanting more details of the incidents I mentioned, the pilot calling in after five days off was calling because he arrived home late from a personal trip on an airline flight that had been delayed a few hours. To me, that's clearly not what a fatigue call is intended for. Obviously we don't want a pilot flying if they're not fit to fly, but there needs to be a deduction of PTO in cases like a lack of planning on the pilot's part.

The other pilot calling in two days in a row was at home, not in a hotel. I don't know many details beyond that.

Our most experienced flight coordinator says anecdotally, the past few months have been the worst she's seen in several years of working with us, although we're flying at the same pace as always. Certain pilots have a reputation amongst the coordinators and it becomes obvious they're using the system to their benefit.

I'll work on improving the system. Lots of good ideas here regarding reporting and analyzing reports.

At most airlines I would imagine those types of incidents that you’ve described would not be considered operational in nature and the time would be deducted from the pilot’s sick/PTO bank. They would of course still be perfectly valid fatigue calls because as everybody else has mentioned, we have the ability and responsibility to determine fitness for duty.

 

[JordanD]

Oddly enough I did spend a little bit of this morning looking at California 'state sick' and kin care and the like. PFMC does a surprisingly good job of documenting the process.

I do wish it was a little more easily stated like the aforementioned contract. Both times I used it were “ok, I need to get on the next flight home like… now.” and I wouldn’t want to be worried about catching grief because I used the wrong verbiage in the sick call, or having to explain something that isn’t really anyone else’s business other than me and my spouse’s.

 

[jrh]

At most airlines I would imagine those types of incidents that you’ve described would not be considered operational in nature and the time would be deducted from the pilot’s sick/PTO bank. They would of course still be perfectly valid fatigue calls because as everybody else has mentioned, we have the ability and responsibility to determine fitness for duty.

This is my view of it as well. If they're not fit to fly, they're not fit to fly.

What I've realized is there might be a disconnect in how people understand the verbiage around this issue. For me, personally, I've always understood fatigue calls to be caused by operational issues at work, whereas I'd be calling in "sick" or saying I need personal time off for things that go haywire in my personal life.

Maybe other pilots are abusing the system, or maybe they don't understand the implications of what they're saying.