ATC Sickness
On the one hand the problem lies in there being no system in place to verify if the sick are sick. Here in Limbabwe if my wife reports sick she can expect a visit from a representative of her company's medical insurance company any time during her period of absence, even if it's one day. This isn't done at ATC Euromuddle and we too have the regular sickies who are too ill to come to work but, fortunately for them, not ill enough it seems to be seen on the golf course!
On the other hand, there's a great deal more stress attached to the job stemming not just from the controlling itself but from incompetent managers and politics. Some people have less resistance then others and genuinely feel the need to recharge the batteries from time to time by taking "time-out".
On the other hand, there's a great deal more stress attached to the job stemming not just from the controlling itself but from incompetent managers and politics. Some people have less resistance then others and genuinely feel the need to recharge the batteries from time to time by taking "time-out".
StandupfortheUlstermen
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Hi TR, sorry mate, couldn't resist letting that one out, but you never know, things may get better for you if the new owners decide to change things.
Jerricho - I don't work there anymore, thankfully, but I was the union rep in my time at Belfast City, and I was just waiting for them to try to discipline any of us for being sick. Then I would have had not only the union involved, but CAA SRG.
Now that the City is owned by the same company that I work for, I am keeping my present union guy up to date on anything that they may try to bring across the Irish Sea.
There was also that clause in your contract that said you had to work "reasonable overtime in line with the needs of the business", which could be at periods of very short notice eg 30 mins notice. This was more of an inconvenience to your private life than anything else, except when they expected you to work more than the allowable 10 hour duty time. I will admit that I did it, more often than not, because it was a deviation from the norm and because it usually involved a medical flight (eg transplant organs/seriously ill children). But there were occasions when these extensions were because of late scheduled flights that the company didn't want to lose revenue on.
Once or twice, I did refuse to do the extension past 23:45 (our late shift started at 13:45) just to make a point.
I do sometimes wonder what happened to all those SRATCOH break forms that were filled in.
Jerricho - I don't work there anymore, thankfully, but I was the union rep in my time at Belfast City, and I was just waiting for them to try to discipline any of us for being sick. Then I would have had not only the union involved, but CAA SRG.
Now that the City is owned by the same company that I work for, I am keeping my present union guy up to date on anything that they may try to bring across the Irish Sea.
There was also that clause in your contract that said you had to work "reasonable overtime in line with the needs of the business", which could be at periods of very short notice eg 30 mins notice. This was more of an inconvenience to your private life than anything else, except when they expected you to work more than the allowable 10 hour duty time. I will admit that I did it, more often than not, because it was a deviation from the norm and because it usually involved a medical flight (eg transplant organs/seriously ill children). But there were occasions when these extensions were because of late scheduled flights that the company didn't want to lose revenue on.
Once or twice, I did refuse to do the extension past 23:45 (our late shift started at 13:45) just to make a point.
I do sometimes wonder what happened to all those SRATCOH break forms that were filled in.
Join Date: Jul 2001
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This thread on sick leave is rather interesting. One thing that I don't see talked about though is that you can be taking just about any sort of medication for a cold, allergy etc... You feel FINE after taking it, but you are no longer allowed to work. So you take sick leave and being that you feel fine, you go out. I really don't see an issue with that.
Just as an aside, we can have up to three days of sick time with no visit to the doctor to prove that you are sick over here. There are times though when magement does violate the contract and give you what we call a sick leave letter for abuse of sick leave. Like one that went out to one individual last month. This person had 40 hours of sick leave used in one pay period ( Two week period.) . The employee had to bring it to the managers attention that his time and attendence record showed him present at work for all of those days on that pay period. The employee had donated the leave to a fellow employee to use ( We have a program that people with serious illness can apply for leave from fellow workers to help cover them.). Manager was stumped <G>.
regards
Scott
Just as an aside, we can have up to three days of sick time with no visit to the doctor to prove that you are sick over here. There are times though when magement does violate the contract and give you what we call a sick leave letter for abuse of sick leave. Like one that went out to one individual last month. This person had 40 hours of sick leave used in one pay period ( Two week period.) . The employee had to bring it to the managers attention that his time and attendence record showed him present at work for all of those days on that pay period. The employee had donated the leave to a fellow employee to use ( We have a program that people with serious illness can apply for leave from fellow workers to help cover them.). Manager was stumped <G>.
regards
Scott
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Are Leeds using the Bradford Factor for sickness?
If so the formula used by management is:
spells absent x spells absent x total number of days.
So someone with 1 spell of 10 days off gets 10pts.
Someone with 10 spells of 1 day off gets 1000pts.
I think the main idea of the scheme is to make people think twice about throwing "sickies" for the odd day, as you can see the points add up quickly that way.
As usual though, this scheme affects everyone in the company when usually its a minority who are thowing regular "sickies". Most employees and employers know how they are.
Previous posters are quite right, this scheme makes some people who are genuinely sick afraid of staying at home, so they come to work with their colds etc and spread them around the workplace.
I do believe the employees at Liverpool Airport are under this scheme, so presumably ATC are as well as I believe its done "in house" now. Maybe someone from there could confirm this.
If so the formula used by management is:
spells absent x spells absent x total number of days.
So someone with 1 spell of 10 days off gets 10pts.
Someone with 10 spells of 1 day off gets 1000pts.
I think the main idea of the scheme is to make people think twice about throwing "sickies" for the odd day, as you can see the points add up quickly that way.
As usual though, this scheme affects everyone in the company when usually its a minority who are thowing regular "sickies". Most employees and employers know how they are.
Previous posters are quite right, this scheme makes some people who are genuinely sick afraid of staying at home, so they come to work with their colds etc and spread them around the workplace.
I do believe the employees at Liverpool Airport are under this scheme, so presumably ATC are as well as I believe its done "in house" now. Maybe someone from there could confirm this.
StandupfortheUlstermen
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The management of a large regional in SW England offered it's employees free flu jabs this year to try to prevent an outbreak of flu. I thought that was a nice touch. Something that benefits the employees just as much, if not more than the company.
