SWA fined for sick leave punishment

[MikeD]

….employee alleges being issued a letter of instruction for using 11 sick days in 12 months. The Industrial Commission considers that retaliation because the employee was given the warning letter within 90 days of taking the earned sick time.

Some of the complaints come from long-time employees.

“Looking at this file, I note the claimant has worked for Southwest for more than 30 years,” Industrial Commission Chairman Dennis Kavanaugh said at a recent meeting.

Another employee worked for the airline for more than 25 years and filed a complaint after receiving a “final letter of warning” for using 27 sick days within 12 months.

Southwest Airlines fined $300K in labor fines in Arizona

Southwest Airlines has racked up more than $300,000 in labor-related fines after Arizona workers filed complaints saying the company retaliated against them for taking their earned sick time.

www.abc15.com

 

[Minuteman]

“Southwest, however, contends that the bargaining agreement between Southwest and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association is subject to federal labor laws, which the airline contends preempts many state and local laws.”

Loooolkay Southwest. You can't make an agreement that goes below each state's minimum wage, but you think you can go below each state's statutes about accrued sick days.

My brief read of the Arizona Fair Wages Act is that an employee may accrue up to 40 hours (five days?) of earned paid sick time per year. So the cases where an employee was penalized for using 11 or 27 days were probably accrued over several other non-used years. I doubt oher provisions for sick days were used for that time to be the exemplar cases for the fines.

But I'm really wondering how much of this boils-down to a single HR weirdo or aspiriing-c-suite goofball in circulation at Southwest. I sure the sudden use of this paid sick time and the retaliation is not a bellweather for larger problems at Southwest and everything is fine.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Meanwhile in ATC if you carry much of a sick leave balance people are suspicious you’re trying to go management lol

 

[mightynimbus]

Never thought much about it, and I haven't been out sick in 14 years,
(probably get the COVID next week for saying that)
but how does the not uncommon "reset available sick leave each calendar year" fit in?
Is that a collective bargaining thing, or is it State / Federal law that you can accrue an offered sick leave benefit?

 

[Skåning]

I haven't been out sick in 14 years,

Do you work from home?

 

[tlove482]

Do you work from home?

Or goes to work sick.

 

[Stone Cold]

<laughs in MRDSCC maniacal laughter >

 

[Wardogg]

< laughs in unlimited days off >

 

[Crockrocket94]

Not a pilot thing...

 

[tcco94]

You don’t get a prize for working sick!!!

 

[DeltaAlphaNovember]

My favorite is when they are obviously sick but they claim it's just allergies.

 

[Flyinthrew]

Good God. As if we didn't have enough to remind us that SWA lost the plot after the departure of their founder, they really outdo themselves. They used to put their employees ahead of customers and certainly ahead of shareholders, and that is a big part of what made them the most profitable airline of all time. They can get their mojo back, but it's not going to be with the current management team.

Same thing happened to Walmart when Sam Walton died. Their reason for existing went fuzzy and got corrupted when the founder died. Now Walmart is a sick, sad shell of their former self. Sure, they turn a profit, but there is definitely a real cost for the money you make when shareholder supremacy takes the reins.

In a way, Walmart and SWA are following a similar story arc. Common goods for the common man. Even the lore of Herb Kelleher and Sam Walton have a very similar flavor. However, whereas Walmart can outrun its problems with massive scale and pliable margins, SWA is in an industry that can't do that.

 

[Richman]

I can't tell you how irritating it is to catch someone's "allergies". Best part is I get sick on my days off.

Anyone sniffling, coughing or sneezing garners the dreaded, but patented, Richman Gaze of Doom(tm).

 

[Minuteman]

Meanwhile I have salaried office-cat coworkers who were expressing gratitude that they got the Covid on Friday so the worst of it didn’t affect their work week.

I figure we’re about 18 months from dropping the “human” part of HR.

 

[Roger Roger]

Good God. As if we didn't have enough to remind us that SWA lost the plot after the departure of their founder, they really outdo themselves. They used to put their employees ahead of customers and certainly ahead of shareholders, and that is a big part of what made them the most profitable airline of all time. They can get their mojo back, but it's not going to be with the current management team.

Same thing happened to Walmart when Sam Walton died. Their reason for existing went fuzzy and got corrupted when the founder died. Now Walmart is a sick, sad shell of their former self. Sure, they turn a profit, but there is definitely a real cost for the money you make when shareholder supremacy takes the reins.

In a way, Walmart and SWA are following a similar story arc. Common goods for the common man. Even the lore of Herb Kelleher and Sam Walton have a very similar flavor. However, whereas Walmart can outrun its problems with massive scale and pliable margins, SWA is in an industry that can't do that.

It’s almost like that’s an inevitable consequence of the people with the capital calling the shots

 

[Richman]

It’s almost like that’s an inevitable consequence of the people with the capital calling the shots

Ok, thought exercise of sorts. Everyone complains when the mindless corporate machine does what they do...focus on the shareholder. But not really shareholder returns, but quick pops of the stock so "institutional investors" can make their numbers and bail out. This leads to bad, sometimes catastrophic, short term thinking.

OR

The corporations use their power to dominate an industry, control a resource or insert themselves into the cash flow of an industry, so they can parasitically drain cash but provide no value added, which is currently the insurance part of health care, but there are many other analogs.

Conversely, when some "disrupter" decides he/she is going to eschew the whole stockholder worry, tell them and the government to eff off, and go full speed ahead, then people lose their minds over THAT as well. AKA Elon.

Sooooo, at some point you need to decide what weevil you want, cause there's always gonna be some, and please don't say "moar regulation", since we have plenty already, and here we are.

 

[Flyinthrew]

Ok, thought exercise of sorts. Everyone complains when the mindless corporate machine does what they do...focus on the shareholder. But not really shareholder returns, but quick pops of the stock so "institutional investors" can make their numbers and bail out. This leads to bad, sometimes catastrophic, short term thinking.

OR

The corporations use their power to dominate an industry, control a resource or insert themselves into the cash flow of an industry, so they can parasitically drain cash but provide no value added, which is currently the insurance part of health care, but there are many other analogs.

Conversely, when some "disrupter" decides he/she is going to eschew the whole stockholder worry, tell them and the government to eff off, and go full speed ahead, then people lose their minds over THAT as well. AKA Elon.

Sooooo, at some point you need to decide what weevil you want, cause there's always gonna be some, and please don't say "moar regulation", since we have plenty already, and here we are.

I would definitely recommend The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek (or really any of his stuff). He’s very idealistic, but his stuff is definitely the antidote to the current paradigm of Capitalism. I am personally against shareholder supremacy, but I still believe in the capitalist model as a whole. Kinda like the way I am still moderately conservative but cannot stand the Republican party.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Conversely, when some "disrupter" decides he/she is going to eschew the whole stockholder worry, tell them and the government to eff off, and go full speed ahead, then people lose their minds over THAT as well. AKA Elon.

Eh he’s responsible for some crazy market manipulation. It backfiring is literally why he owns Twitter now. He’s most certainly interested in his share value.

 

[tcco94]

Eh he’s responsible for some crazy market manipulation. It backfiring is literally why he owns Twitter now. He’s most certainly interested in his share value.

He’s literally tweeted things that manipulated his own company shares directly and got fined by the SEC too. Like saying stuff like “Tesla is overpriced imo”. It’s crazy

 

[MikeD]

He’s literally tweeted things that manipulated his own company shares directly and got fined by the SEC too. Like saying stuff like “Tesla is overpriced imo”. It’s crazy

Would it be “he’s literally X’d things…..”