Flight attendants at American Airlines now face being terminated if they catch COVID-19 after the Fort Worth-based carrier reinstated its pre-pandemic sickness and attendance policy on Wednesday.
Like many US carriers, American Airlines has a controversial points-based attendance policy whereby flight attendants automatically accrue points whenever they go sick, take a personal day, or turn up late for a flight.
If a flight attendant amasses too many points, then they face disciplinary action or even termination. Just ten points collected over a rolling 12-month period could result in a flight attendant losing their job. Going sick over critical periods like the Fourth of July weekend results in additional points being issued.
For most of the pandemic and up until January 15, however, American Airlines would not issue attendance points to flight attendants who were able to prove that they had been sickened by COVID-19. That policy had now been rescinded.
From now on, flight attendants will only be able to avoid having attendance points issued against them for going sick with COVID-19 if they successfully apply for a medical leave of absence or if the Family and Medical Leave Act applies.
A positive COVID-19 test will not, however, be enough evidence to apply for a leave of absence, and flight attendants will need to seek out a professional certificate from a healthcare provider.
In 2022, American Airlines tried to reinstate its pre-pandemic absence policy to COVID-19 but was forced to backtrack after the BA.5 Omicron variant led to a spike in new infections.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents crew members at American Airlines, has previously tried to fight the carrier’s attendance policy, arguing that it encouraged flight attendants to go to work sick – potentially infecting coworkers and vulnerable passengers with viral illnesses.
Sick leave laws at the State level may provide flight attendants with more protection, although US carriers have been fighting these laws in the courts, claiming that federal rules trump at the local level.
Earlier this month, a powerful airline lobby group filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota over a ‘pervasive’ sick leave law that it claims encourages flight attendants to go sick.
The Minnesota law bars airlines from assigning attendance points or demanding doctors’ notes from employees who take up to 48 hours of protected accrued time off work.
Federal rules require aircrew only to work if they are fit to do so, and in the United Kingdom, researchers believe that it is likely that cabin crew take more time off work per year due to sickness than the national average because of the unique demands and requirements of their job.
Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since... most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.
I can see both sides on this, the sad fact of the manner is that many people misuse the sick leave policy because they don’t like their job and want to take the time off.
matter
Note that in recent contract bargaining, APFA did not try to change the American Airlines attendance points policy. And testimony in the Mass Sick case suggested that the union was onboard with reinstating the policy, because it reduced absences, and absences drive up reserve requirements.
Jesus how is this legal? Do you want to be attended by sick flight attendants? I can barely drive a car when sick, how about flying a plane? what a shitty country.
“Just ten points collected over a rolling 12-month period could result in a flight attendant losing their job.”
Without explaining HOW the points are accrued, this means nothing. Is it one point per day missed, or one point per trip missed? If the flight attendant loses his/her job at 10 points, that will mean that they’ve had at least 2 or 3 disciplinary meetings with their manager. With a union representative present. If the flight attendant has a chronic medical condition they can apply for FMLA, which will give job protection. So to get to 10 points in a rolling 12 month period, the flight attendant has to have had a substantial number of absences that were not FMLA qualifying. And after multiple meetings with her/his manager, continued to rack up absences. In my experience, the absence that gets an employee terminated is the legitimate absence. The problem is, in the rolling 12 months prior, the other absences were the ones used to extend vacations, avoid working on their birthday, go to a friends wedding, etc. Simple rule for success is, “come to work when you are healthy, don’t when you are not”. If you are legitimately sick that much, apply for FMLA.
It sounds just like Walmart’s policy. 1/2 point late, 1 point per day if sick, 2 points on days the company deems high traffic. For FMLA application it takes a while (week plus) to get approval through a THIRD party company that works FOR your employer. Like insurance, denial is the assessor’s job.
At Walmart 4 points accrued gets you warned & a half or full point more gets you fired. NO “discussions with managers”. Just bye. There is the grace that a point will “fall off” after 6 mos. Like, if you have 4, one acquired on June 15th 2024 it falls off Jan 15th 2025.
Tough.
I would consider flight attendants WAY more essential than I am. (Cashier)
Also, the run of COVID could be 3+ days. Not hard to get fired, sick for 3 days 3 times (covid, flu A, novovirus, whooping cough) puts your head on the chopping block.
Vaccination helps…
The beatings will continue until morale improves. In the continuing absence of a national public address to the nation of the March 2020 global bioweapon attack upon the country and planet, this disgusting genocidal assault and tyranny and its downstream effects as noted above will continue as DYOR appears to be the only salvation for those who see it for what is and continues to be. PCR testing is being used as a fraudulent clinical diagnostic tool as it can be manipulated to get the results you want if the cycles are turned up high enough and its baffling doctors all the way to the bank.