Sunday, September 19, 2010

Questions Answered: FMLA and being a pilot

With the airlines, how do you go about requesting 2 months off? Thanks.

I am taking November and December off to spend time with my daughter. I am taking time off under FMLA. FMLA allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for a birth or other medical circumstances.

As of now I am taking less than 12 weeks. Once I start taking time off the clock starts. I have to be back at the end of 12 weeks. If I take just 8 weeks off then the other 4 weeks fade away. Kinda crappy. Would be nice if I would use the other 4 weeks later.

Beyond FMLA there are other ways of getting extended time off. My airline offers Leaves of Absences (LOAs). It's all staffing based. If they are overstaffed LOAs are offered to prevent furloughs. If staffing is tight LOAs are unlikely.

I know one pilot who took a 3 year LOA to go teach at a simulator facility. While he is gone his seniority keeps advancing. If he changes his mind and wants to come back earlier he only has to give a month notice. It can be a really good thing if there is another job you can do while waiting for things to improve.

There was a guy in my initial training class who is in the Air National Guard. He was hired back in 2004. Things weren't moving very fast here so went back into duty with the ANG for 3 years. When he came back he was near the top of his status bidding wise. Not too shabby.

While I am out on FMLA I hope to travel a bit with my daughter. Sure she is too young to remember anything...but I have a camera!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your quick response to my question and congrats to the birth of your daughter. Have a good time traveling come November! By the way, your blog is amazing and I enjoy reading it. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete

If you are a spammer....your post will never show up. Move along.