FC5393 - Sickness mobbing

Initial Report

I received a letter from my [airline] base manager, related to my days of sickness carried out in the last 12 months. Of note, for each day of sickness, I have always provided an approved medical certificate in accordance with our company and contract procedure. I have always provided a medical certificate on the first day of sickness to the company. Attached is part of a memo which I find evidence of “mobbing.” As a professional pilot, I will never put in danger my crew, my passengers, and my airplane by going to work unfit to fly, as mentioned on our Ops Manual.

[NB For identification and confidentiality purposes, the actual letter provided to CHIRP cannot be reproduced in FEEDBACK; a summarised extract is provided below to indicate the type of language used.]

“We recognise that flight crew will be absent from rostered duties from time to time and some absence is unavoidable. But, in your case, where repeated absence occurs, it impacts on the operational efficiency of our airline – we expect an immediate improvement in reporting for duty rates and reduction in sickness.”

CHIRP Comment

Having seen the original letter sent to the reporter from airline management, CHIRP firmly believes that it was a very poor example of formal communication from management to an employee. The wording would be upsetting and distressing to anyone receiving it, regardless of the circumstances and seniority of the employee. This report also raised a more general issue about safety culture at the airline whereby crew are being pressurised into flying owing to a fear of the consequences of not doing so. The report indicates an organisation that feels it is acceptable to write to employees in such a combative and threatening manner; especially concerning when the context is supposed to be welfare. CHIRP could see no mitigating reasons to send a letter with this tone and content. The reporter stated that they personally will continue to resist being pressured into reporting for work whilst sick. Not all crew members, particularly those at the start of their flying careers, may feel as able to stand up to such pressure from management.

Please see CHIRP comments for FC5376 – Commercial Pressure, which also deals with another airline’s reported aggressive attitude to sickness which thus creates a pressure on crews to fly when unfit.