Reply #61: Thanks for your efforts. [View All]

[MercutioATC]

We need all the help we can get.

As for your question, "I'm wondering if the FAA is rife with insanity, or is just completely morally bankrupt." the answer is yes...

To give you an example, a woman who works at my facility has ongoing health problems. Because of this, she has exhausted all of her vacation time and sick leave. The government has a leave-without-pay (LWOP) program to deal with these situations (if approved by management, you can still take days off if needed, you just don't get paid for them). The woman in question asked for a day of LWOP to go to a doctor's appointment to get test results to find out if she had cancer.

However, the FAA seems to think that LWOP is being used too much and has encouraged managers to only grant it when necessary. The manager of my facility denied her request. After the local president of our union spoke with him and again explained that this woman HAD to go to the doctor to find out if she had cancer, the manager relented...somewhat. He allowed her to take 1/2 day of LWOP. She had to go to a 9:00am doctor's appointment to find out if she had cancer and then come to work for the second half of her shift from 11:00am until 3:00pm.

She does have cancer.

Is that insane or morally bankrupt? Yes.