Q: How many provisions within the agreement are left to management discretion, and why?
Provisions allowing management discretion are common in contracts and acknowledgement that they do have to maintain the operation, but not at the expense of employees. That is why fences, protections, and penalties are built into contractual provisions. In the case of the PPP, there is a significant monetary reward for hitting the threshold, and management is trying to encourage behavior. We also acknowledge management’s ability to bestow more generous allowances than those contractually provided (Bereavement, Safety, Leaves, Management Drop). These are the provisions including “management discretion”:
- Ability to replace Flight Attendants at a station other than their domicile if a duty period exceeds 12:30 (rather than requiring the Flight Attendant to remain on duty until returned to domicile)
- Restoring RON rest (no loss of pay to Flight Attendant)
- Adjust report or reassign or remove from sequence with pay protection and deadhead to domicile following rest
- Offering Low-Bid Options
- Dropping sequence with pay protection (pre-cancellation)
- Deadheading a Flight Attendant who receives a no-show at an outstation to another station to cover flying (if not feasible to reconnect with original sequence, deadhead is paid)
- Allowing a Reserve to reposition out of closed days
- Granting an educational leave of absence
- Allowing additional time off after an incident or accident
- Allowing additional time for bereavement leave, or bereavement leave for circumstances other than those listed in contract
- Establishing the specific 4-month PPP blocks and $ amount in each PPP block (totaling $4,000)
- Offering Voluntary Foreign Language Training
- Referring Flight Attendant to EAP instead of discipline if there is a conflict between co-workers
- Offering voluntary, paid training related to Flight Attendant role
- Granting management drop
- Reducing/eliminating attendance points for special circumstances
- Setting the 3 Verification Periods per year for the State Sick Bank