Originally Posted by
beardy
The Captain (Commander if you prefer) is usually the line manager of the crew and has the responsibility of managing them. This requires a knowledge of the relevant regulations and HR procedures (although these may be administered through a different department from that concerned with pilots.) Depending on the size of the company the Captain may not know of any HR records for her/his crew, so he/she may not be aware of any disciplinary record that may be relevant to his/her decision making. This makes the HR side of managing impersonal - as it should be. It also means that the Captain has to exercise her/his skill in managing potentially difficult situations such as the exercising of discretion. In these circumstances the declaration of fatigue by any crew member is a no brainer, the CC member can not continue with duties. The Captain also has to manage the consequences of losing a crew member and that may mean offloading passengers and blanking off seats or in extremis not operating that sector. Those are his/her responsibilities, it is not in her/his remit to manage the knock on effects, that is for the Operations department to sort out. Nor is it the Captain's responsibility to take HR procedures any further than the immediate incident, no matter how he/she may feel toward any individual. It's not easy to manage impartially, with a clear conscience, in a straightforward way and not all Captains are aware of their duties in this respect especially when faced with difficult individuals who have character flaws.
Nobody said it would be easy
Well put beardy. That is what we get paid the extra $50k per day for isn't it! 😂