THE FACTS ! FULL STOP.
The sickness issue is a one within all companies, not just within the airline industry. You may remember that Tesco's reported an increased amount of sickness within its staff, and decided not to pay their staff when less than 3 days off sick were taken.
Anyway, these processes are illegal.
Here are the facts which I'm pretty sure will make everyone think twice before calling in sick next time.
The majority of employees are entitled to statutory sick pay if they have to take the time off because they are unwell. At this time, my belief is that the statutory pay is £64.35 a week, and this pay is payable ony after the first three days of your illness.
All companies have a written policy on sick leave. These instructions will detail who in personel must be called, or if you must contact several departments on the first day of your sickness (i.e. crew control and cabin crew supervisors). These rules will also point out how many days you can be ill before providing a doctors certificate.
Now, if you are very often away from work on short term illnesses that are not part of a long term or more serious condition, your employer may have the right to dismiss you, but not before investigating your absences and going through the standard disciplinary procedure, giving you an opportunity to defend yourself. If you are dismissed without any warning because of absenteeism, you might be able to claim for unfair dismissal.
This is why companies have a sickness monitoring policy. I'm pretty sure Fiona is not being truthful in her declarations, as it would have triggered the sickness review policy. Unless you have a chronic illness, there aren't many explanations you can give for being sick several days in one month. And if you do have a medical condition, then although this doesn't seem humanly right, the company has the right to dismiss you as this condition makes it impossible for you to do your job.
Therefore, in such conditions, rules are easily bent by the companies, and intimidation is used, which is completely illegal. This is why it is important to be part of an airline union. You may think they are crap, but they have a legal responsibility to back up your grievence claims.
I'm currently in the process of designing a website which will offer free legal advice to any worker within the airline industry, making it easier for airline staff to understand the rules, but most importantly, know their rights, and not be intimidated to claim for victimisation, unfair dismissal, discrimination (Direct and Indirect) and harrassment (which often comes up during sickness reporting)
I'll inform you of the URL as soon as the website is out.
Regards