UPDATE: United Airlines has declared victory in its campaign to curtail the abuse of sick time among flight attendants and now rolled back its “absence certificate” requirement for those who call in sick on a weekend.
Live And Let’s Fly reviewed a memo circulated to flight attendants which reads:
We’re rescinding the requirement of an absence certificate for Friday, Saturday and Sunday effective immediately.
The policy achieved the intended objective of reducing the highly unusual sick call rates on weekends to normal percentages. The significant sick leave reduction during the time the policy was in effect reduced the risks to the operation during peak summer travel.
We’ll continue to monitor sick trends closely. Our desire is to not need to reinstate this requirement in the future. Thank you to everyone who worked on these peak travel days, ensuring our customers got to their destinations safely and securely.
(bolding mine)
United claims “the policy achieved the intended objective of reducing the highly unusual sick call rates on weekends to normal percentages” and had previously communicated that sick calls had risen by as much as 23%…on weekends only…earlier this summer.
Flight attendants remain in negotiation for a new contract from United.
Our original story on this matter, published on July 22, 2024, is below.
United Airlines contends that flight attendants appear to be abusing sick time on weekends this summer. It has introduced new reporting requirements it hopes will discourage such behavior. But trying to address this problem through punitive new rules may create an even larger problem for United. So what is United to do?
United Airlines To Flight Attendants: We Want To See Proof You Are Sick If You Take Sick Time
United reports that flight attendants are calling in sick on weekends over the summer at an alarming rate:
We have seen a significant increase in sick calls over weekends this summer. The uptick-as high as 23%-suggests that some flight attendants are misusing sick leave. We never want 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.
As a result, United is requiring—effective immediately—an “absence certificate” for flight attendants who take a sick day on Friday/Saturday/Sunday “until further notice.”
This increase in sick calls has resulted in the need to require flight attendants to provide verification of an incapacitating illness from an accredited physician when making a sick call. Effective July 21 and until further notice, all flight attendants who call in sick for trips departing/reserve days on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays are required to submit an absence certificate. This is necessary to prevent the abuse of sick leave from disrupting our operation and to ensure sick leave is being used appropriately so we can cover open trips and avoid cancellations.
If the absence certificate is not received within 72 hours of calling off sick leave, the flight attendant will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
Historically, United has required such absence certificates when flight attendants call in sick over peak holiday travel periods like the Fourth of July and Christmas.
Union Cries Foul Over New Reporting Requirements
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) union representing United flight attendants is up in arms about the new requirements.
Not only is this a willful Contract violation, it is yet another demonstration of management’s lack of respect for Flight Attendants and our contract.
As contract negotiations continue, the AFA lamented the timing of the new measure and how it demonstrates “deteriorating labor relations” between management and union:
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.
It will file a grievance (a formal complaint) concerning the policy, but that will not stop the policy from going into effect until the grievance is resolved.
The Service Dog Analogy
I struggle over whether to reluctantly support or reject these new requirements. No worker should feel compelled to come to work sick. No company should have to tolerate workers who lie about being sick in order to enjoy extra time off.
United has handled this issue the way I would handle service dogs. As I’ve written about repeatedly, I have noted a proliferation in poorly-behaved “service dogs” onboard. There are a number of approaches to this problem. One would be to ban all dogs. That’s about as practical as banning flight attendants from calling in sick on weekends.
At the other end is maintaining the status quo, which is leading to continued and escalating abuse.
The “happy medium” seems to be that you need more documentation to claim a benefit, in light of the abuse. Will there be good and decent flight attendants caught in the fray? Oh yes.
But the blame should not be on United, but on their colleagues for cheating the system. A 23% uptick in people calling in sick…only on weekends? Come on now, that should not have to be tolerated by any employer.
But it’s those individual cases that make it so difficult. It’s not easy to get a same-day appointment anywhere. Going into an urgent care center and sitting there for an hour to get a doctor or PA or NP to say, “Oh yeah, you have a fever. Just rest” seems so counterproductive. And flight attendants domiciled in California, where this sort of thing seems to be illegal, may be uniquely suited to fight this requirement.
But again, what else is United supposed to do? It should not have to incentivize people to do the work they are paid for and it strikes me as a bit like democracy, the “least worst” system among alternatives.
And sorry, but employees who are up in arms about having to surrender such personal information are working for a company that demanded each employee be vaccinated (and the AFA cheered) and a form that has been around for years for sick leave over holiday periods…this is no surprise.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines flight attendants are now required to submit a “doctor’s note” when they call in sick on weekends. United says this is necessary in order to address a surge in flight attendants calling sick over the weekends this summer.
I realize this whole discussion is foreign and perhaps obscene to our readers in Europe…but I saw the abuse of sick policy when I worked in Germany and I’m not sure the “ask no questions” approach is better.
Ultimately, I think when you treat employees well, they won’t game the system. I suspect that flight attendants will be less likely to engage in such behavior when they secure a new contract.
That doesn’t in any way condone the current antics of flight attendants calling in sick because they want a day off (which could even be seen as an illegal work slow down). But when there is mutual respect, there is no need for such measures…the bad apple should be pruned by co-workers.
Yes, the union rues:
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.”
But ultimately, I didn’t see the union telling its members not to abuse the sick policy…
If there is a not a valid contract between the union and management, aren’t the union employees effectively employment at will?
Meaning management sets the terms, the employees must follow or they are free to find themselves another job
The old CBA is simply amenable, not null and void. There is no expiration date on it.
You can make a lot of excuses and everyone can have an opinion. Bottom line is……ITS AGAINST THE CONTRACT!!!! When the department of labor gets involved, that policy grabbed out of thin air will stop! If employees are granted a certain amount of sick hours and contractually you reserve for dr. Notes on certain holidays, then so be it!! I hope people do get fired and in turn slap a lawsuit on the company for wrongful termination for breaking there contract!!
Billy, in all honesty, you are correct – it is a contractual matter and 121pilot is correct that the system is broken, but these sorts of changes are unfortunate.
Sadly the department of Labor will not get involved at all. As far as they are concerned this is a matter to be resolved through the grievance process. Now California may very well take a different approach if this violates state law and drop the hammer on UAL.
Common Sense : If one fakes being sick , with a pretend-headache , termination immediately .
If one fakes being well , when actually sick with plague , rabies , covid , or leprosy , termination immediately .
If one is actually well , report to work .
If one is actually sick , go to hospital and have a hospital record ; no internet letters accepted .
You must be dumb!!! Who goes to the doctor for diarrhea!! Employees have to commute to different states for work! If you are granted sick hours and need to use it, then that’s it. You can’t monitor people who live in other states or other countries!! It’s not McDonalds in a small town where John decided to go fishing!! It’s John who lives in Hawaii and decided not to come into work in Houston!! You’re going to require John to go to the doctor to say he had diarrhea yesterday? The day he was suppose to leave??? Who’s paying for the doctors visit??? If your requiring a note which you need an appointment, then the company should reimburse!!!
Suspect that the AFA used the phrase ” in the midst of this chaos” in the response . Because intermittent chaos was also a term the AFA proposed as a flight attendant disruption protest.
What is the union’s solution?
Could it be management went to union leadership and said we have a problem. Let’s fix it. If the union didn’t do anything, replied with a bunch of unreasonable demands, or told them to go to hell then they got what they deserve.
The union needs to protect the flight attendants for their right to call in sick. The airline needs to have float pool / reserve staff to replace sick-time workers
The airline is obviously trying to protect its profits because canceling a flight due to lack of staff costs them in the 10s of thousands of dollars.
No one has a “right to call in sick” , if they are not actually sick .
I think the problem United will have is when they try to implement corrective action up to an including termination. If the contract with the AFA explicitly states flight attendants need proper documentation over the Christmas, 4th of July, Thanksgiving holidays or else, United can not now take that same language and apply it to all weekends simply because of a 23% increase in call outs. I’m not one to normally agree with the AFA but on this issue even though there’s obvious abuse taking place the way to solve the abuse is through contract negotiations and having it in writing that is one of the points of having union protection. Delta Airlines can implement this type of rule as they don’t have a union but United will for sure run into issues at the local level because all the union steward has to say during an investigation is show me where this flight attendant violated the contract as written and agreed upon.
The only way I can see any FA being fired or having any disciplinary action stick is if that particular FA has chronic pattern of calling out sick only on weekends. If a flight attendant who has no pattern of calling out sick on weekends all of sudden call out and doesn’t present a doctors note good union stewards would be able to successfully defend that FA against any disciplinary action.
“United Airlines has a bold new lawsuit coming”
Apparently they also stated for FMLA that this would be a requirement as well. Many flight attendants are reporting them as I type this and using the Department of Labor number to do so.
The contract also states individual flight attendants not ALL flight attendants so they won’t get away with it.
They mostly definitely will be getting sued
This is a moot point. If you want a day off, just call a doctor on telemed. Ten minutes after you say “I feel ill” they will say “no problem, certificate on the way in a PDF.”
Next
@Michael
It is in person only no tele health
With protracted contract negotiations between UA and the AFA, I can’t help but wonder if this is some job action to get UA managements attention?
This is a great example of just how broken the airline labor model is thanks to the Railway Labor Act.
Normally if you have a contract it’s legally binding. Break it and there will almost certainly be consequences up to the aggrieved party telling the other that the contract is now null and void.
But under the RLA management can willfully and with malice aforthought violate their labor contracts however and whenever it suits them. The are actually incentivized to do this because a grievance takes forever to get heard especially since even when they know they are wrong they can force it into arbitration. And in arbitration arbitrators basically have none of the rules that would govern a court proceeding and none of the guide rails. They can if they wish essentially re-write a CBA because they don’t like what’s in it. And even if you win the best you can hope for is to be made whole for any direct financial losses as a result of the violation.
So consider United’s position. They are unhappy with the level of sick calls and think this will reduce it. They know full well that what they are implementing is a direct violation of the contract no ifs and’s or buts. What do they stand to lose? Virtually nothing. I’d be willing to bet that they think they can actually save money even if they lose at arbitration in the long run. And they might just persuade an arbitrator that the contract they agreed to is really unfair and should be re-written on the spot to something more “reasonable”.
If you think I’m joking I’m not. I was an ALPA grievance chair once upon a time and watched the arbitrator re-write our contract because he thought it was unreasonable.
There was a time the RLA worked well, when management treated us like human beings. That day is long past. So the real question is, how do we change our industry from being governed under the Railway Labor Act and move it to some other labor law system?
Employees showing up to work sick is going to be a side effect of a policy like this. If I’m a FA scheduled to work on a weekend but catch a cold/flu/virus which only requires home care, I have to go to urgent care off hours for no good reason, at an expense that I’m sure the worker shares in even if they’re partially covered. Or show up to work, prolonging the illness and exposing co-workers and customers. Many will choose the latter, and all will be resentful that they need to make that choice.
Bigger picture problem is people don’t feel their job’s pay is really worth the effort. I know this will go against the view of the (mostly affluent professional-class) readers here. But when you work a job that can barely pay your essentials, you don’t really care too much about it. Becasue if you lose it, there are plenty of other places looking to hire low-wage applicants. It becomes a vicious cycle for this demographic. Airfare is too low, as we have a system motivated primarily by low ticket prices that has created a race to the bottom in terms of wages and service. It’s indicative of a much larger structural problem so many travel and hospitality companies are facing in the midst of spiraling cost of living increases. What were once a mid-wage job on which you could support yourself in a basic manner has become a minimum to near-minimum wage job. We expect highly professional service from front desk and flight attendants, but it pays like a high schooler’s job. But I know “if they don’t like their job, they can just go out and get a new one”. True, yes, but either customer expectations of service need to be adjusted down, or pay adjusted up. Instead our politicians focus on minimum wage demographic vote-buying instead of policies that increase availability of median wage jobs. It’s a mess.
“Bold” eh? Love the euphemism. My take is rather less charitable: Kirby must be having another Senior Moment to agree to this. These are trained professionals. If you have a problem with them then you deal with it, not treat them like they’re in third grade. Either an employee is an asset or they’re not; If they are, treat them well, if they’re not, get rid of them. Childish games like this only destroy morale.
@Matthew – Any idea when the involuntary redirect to “McAfee” on BA sites will be fixed? It’s getting annoying. It ONLY happens on Boarding Area sites.
Do NOT click on it . It will become bored and go home to mommy .
This just burdens the urgent care/ emergency rooms with people who didn’t really need care. Companies don’t consider the externalities when adopting a plan like this. I really hope healthcare providers and insurers hike the employer cost of these frivolous visits required by company policy rather than medical need.
And I hope that United is updating their health plan to waive co-pays and co-insurance for these visits though it might be tough to do so for high-deductible plans without making them non-compliant for HSAs.
I’m sure they are over staffed in light of Boeing delivery issues and weakening leisure demand going into fall with ongoing depressed business demand. Could be a cost effective way to reduce headcount without resorting to more expensive reduction in force measures.
This is a great way to incentivise malicious compliance and generally undermine the employee relations climate within an organisation.
But it’s those individual cases that make it so difficult. It’s not easy to get a same-day appointment anywhere. Going into an urgent care center and sitting there for an hour to get a doctor or PA or NP to say, “Oh yeah, you have a fever. Just rest” seems so counterproductive. And flight attendants domiciled in California, where this sort of thing seems to be illegal, may be uniquely suited to fight this requirement.
But again, what else is United supposed to do? It should not have to incentivize people to do the work they are paid for and it strikes me as a bit like democracy, the “least worst” system among alternatives.
The fact you typed this out is so dystopian. We need to stand up for the individual rights of people and workers. UA is a multi-billion dollar corporation. You have correctly identified the problem of why it’s unreasonable to expect doctor’s note on such short notice of being sick. This is UA basically saying you must work even if you are sick and that will lead to passengers getting sick. Insane stuff.
The underlying issue is a lack of ethics and professionalism among FAs. The 23% sick on weekends shows this.
“…to get a doctor or PA or NP to say, “Oh yeah, you have a fever. Just rest” seems so counterproductive.”
This is incorrect. We are required to see an MD or a DO in person and to have them fill out a specific form for United, not just get a doctor’s note. PAs and NPs are not acceptable medical providers according to our contract and cannot fill out the form and have it accepted by United. Telemed is not one of the allowed options, either. Have you been to an ER or an urgent care lately, the only places likely to be open and available on weekends? You can see a PA or NP, but not an MD or DO. And really, do we need to be burdening our already overburdened medical system to get a form filled out for human resources at United verifying someone has a migraine or is vomiting or has ear block or some other silly thing that doesn’t require medical care in any way whatsoever, but does prevent one from going to work? Can’t I just get a note from my mom like in elementary school?
Also, there is a contractually valid way of disciplining and/or firing people who abuse sick leave. This abuses those who don’t and raises the cost of everyone’s medical insurance. And it blatantly violates our labor contract that United negotiated, agreed to and signed.
My response to this is to stop picking up any extra trips and to follow all safety rules and contract agreements exactly. I’ve seen what pilots can do when they follow all their rules…oops can’t fly with a smudge on the windshield; can’t move plane because that cart is 1mm too close to the plane, etc…I have FAA rules to follow that can cause just as many issues and take up even more time. If Scott Kirby wants war, he’s got it.
United Airlines’ new strategy to address the misuse of sick leave among flight attendants is a bold step toward ensuring operational efficiency and fairness. By implementing clear guidelines and monitoring systems, they aim to balance employee rights with company needs.
United really screwed up with this one. The should have worked with the FA Union, or at least approached them first, before unilaterally implementing the plan. They are likely violating several state laws with the reporting requirement. And Kirby can write on LinkedIn all he wants about how he values United employees, but actions speak louder than words—this will go against any credibility he has on that front (that United is ‘different’, etc.). It would have been better if they approached the union first. If they weren’t able to make progress, they could then have more justification for the unilateral action. A very stupid move by United management.
The company just sent out an update today to FAs saying that a rolling sick call that merely includes a single weekend day—even if it was initiated before the weekend—will still need the absence certificate. So if you get sick on a Monday, call out for your 4-day trip starting Tuesday (ending Friday), you will need to go to the doctor.
I work in a hospital and we get points/demerits against us if we call out. We also get a point against us if we pre schedule a medical procedure that leads to our absence. The limit is 7. We get 10 sick days/year.
It forces healthcare providers to work sick or to not use sick time for procedures. If we leave the job-they don’t pay us our unused sick time. They’re trying to force us not to use our sick time so that when we leave, they don’t have to pay us out what they owe us.
Yes we are union and they are fighting this.
I would have preferred they use the contractually valid method of disciplining or firing those flight attendants who were abusing sick leave. One gets two points for a sick call (one point with a doctor’s note). After three sick calls per year, regardless of the number of sick hours in one’s sick bank, one is placed on a step of discipline for a year with increasing levels of discipline up to termination with any additional sick calls or other violations.
This blanket method of punishing everyone was wrong. I worked with very sick and contagious flight attendants on more than one occasion and I also worked with one flight attendant who could barely walk because of a serious knee injury. There is no way she could perform any safety duties and couldn’t even arm/disarm her door without assistance. However, it is nearly impossible, and also expensive, to find an M.D. or D.O. (the only two acceptable medical personnel according United) on the weekend to fill out an absence certificate. It’s hard enough to find one on weekdays. Most/all urgent care centers are staffed by P.A.s and N.P.s, not M.D.s.
Good for United as airline attendants can sound so Entitled
Unions are a cancer.