6-month Personal Leaves of Absence Proffered

[jimntx]

From the company, good news for those who might have been worried about furloughs to offset reduction in flying.

Today we will be opening a web ballot for Proffered Leaves of Absence (PLOA). We are offering PLOAs due to both the recently announced short-term reduction in planned summer flying driven by high fuel costs, and the overwhelmingly positive response to our flight attendant recalls which was greater than expected.

Also, many of you have expressed interest in a taking a longer term leave, so we are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to you. We will be offering up to 300 PLOAs for a six-month block (184 days), May through October.

This PLOA does not affect the timing or number of recalls which have already been announced – that plan remains unchanged. Training for our recalled flight attendants continues and we will be welcoming many of them back to flying in April, June and July.

The PLOA web ballot opens on the Flight Service website Friday, March 11th at 1500CT, and will close two weeks later on Friday, March 25th at 1000CT.

 

[Frank Szabo]

From the company, good news for those who might have been worried about furloughs to offset reduction in flying.

Today we will be opening a web ballot for Proffered Leaves of Absence (PLOA). We are offering PLOAs due to both the recently announced short-term reduction in planned summer flying driven by high fuel costs, and the overwhelmingly positive response to our flight attendant recalls which was greater than expected.

Also, many of you have expressed interest in a taking a longer term leave, so we are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to you. We will be offering up to 300 PLOAs for a six-month block (184 days), May through October.

This PLOA does not affect the timing or number of recalls which have already been announced – that plan remains unchanged. Training for our recalled flight attendants continues and we will be welcoming many of them back to flying in April, June and July.

The PLOA web ballot opens on the Flight Service website Friday, March 11th at 1500CT, and will close two weeks later on Friday, March 25th at 1000CT.

I don't claim to be a business Guru but it seems rather (fill in the blank) to be recalling through one door and offering PLOFs through the other.

Certainly, there's someone on the planet with a piled high and deep degree that could make sense of this but I'm just a dumb old diemaker with nothing to offer but a bit of common sense.

 

[czerny]

I don't claim to be a business Guru but it seems rather (fill in the blank) to be recalling through one door and offering PLOFs through the other.

Certainly, there's someone on the planet with a piled high and deep degree that could make sense of this but I'm just a dumb old diemaker with nothing to offer but a bit of common sense.

Better a PLOA than a furlough! You and I have been down this road more times than we care to count so we'll see what happens next.

 

[Frank Szabo]

Better a PLOA than a furlough! You and I have been down this road more times than we care to count so we'll see what happens next.

Agreed, but why at the same time as a recall?? WTF??

 

[FWAAA]

Agreed, but why at the same time as a recall?? WTF??

Maybe because the recalls were announced long before the recent spike in jet fuel prices that's causing all legacy airlines to re-evaluate their planned increases in capacity?

 

[boston]

Maybe because the recalls were announced long before the recent spike in jet fuel prices that's causing all legacy airlines to re-evaluate their planned increases in capacity?

I agree, but they just announced 55 recalls sooner than expected. I suspect they have something else or hoping for something to or naturaly happen, which has nothing to do with a strike.

Just a hunch.

 

[eolesen]

Certainly, there's someone on the planet with a piled high and deep degree that could make sense of this but I'm just a dumb old diemaker with nothing to offer but a bit of common sense.

Don't have the deep degree, but the people coming back are going to be towards the bottom of the payscale.

Just guessing, but if PLOAs are snapped up by Senior Mamas (at the top of scale) who typically give away all of their trips, it probably works out to a zero-sum game (if not a little better) for the company.

 

[damajagua]

Decisions like this make me question who is running AA?
I mean are they drunk or smoking crack? How can you be
recalling people at one end and offering leaves on the otther. Our top talents at their best. No wonder they are rewarding themselves another few millions to continue making great decisions like this one.

 

[TWskyliner]

I do have a degree and the people coming back (TW) are not at the bottom in pay, AA recognized their years of service in the inquisition....err acquisition.

 

[Frank Szabo]

Don't have the deep degree, but the people coming back are going to be towards the bottom of the payscale.

Just guessing, but if PLOAs are snapped up by Senior Mamas (at the top of scale) who typically give away all of their trips, it probably works out to a zero-sum game (if not a little better) for the company.

That makes a little more sense than the "in one door and out the other" picture I was seeing.

 

[czerny]

Don't have the deep degree, but the people coming back are going to be towards the bottom of the payscale.

Just guessing, but if PLOAs are snapped up by Senior Mamas (at the top of scale) who typically give away all of their trips, it probably works out to a zero-sum game (if not a little better) for the company.

Recalled fas are former TWA fas who are at the _top_ of the pay scale with all their vacation accrual/sick time intact. I personally cannot afford to take a leave all the more so since I've already lost a whole year of company seniority due to 3 furloughs(counting the "involuntary overage leave" as a glorified furlough) but am grateful for people who can take a leave, regardless of seniority.

 

[Skymess]

Recalled fas are former TWA fas who are at the _top_ of the pay scale with all their vacation accrual/sick time intact. I personally cannot afford to take a leave all the more so since I've already lost a whole year of company seniority due to 3 furloughs(counting the "involuntary overage leave" as a glorified furlough) but am grateful for people who can take a leave, regardless of seniority.

Call me crazy but I cannot find anything positive in leaves of absense. It is especially daunting given the fact that AA was very strict with travel on the last set of leaves and did not allow them to travel if they took one. They also had to give back their badges. I hope that senior people take leaves. I also hope the tsunami aftermath doesn't raise the oil prices further. I'm not so optimistic about leaves or oil.

 

[eolesen]

I do have a degree and the people coming back (TW) are not at the bottom in pay, AA recognized their years of service in the inquisition....err acquisition.

Even if they were at top of scale, it still will likely work out to be a zero-sum decision.

For all the naysaying about APFA, it appears they were smart enough years back to make offering LOA's prior to furlough a contractual matter.

 

[kirkpatrick]

Call me crazy but I cannot find anything positive in leaves of absense.

From what I understand on the APFA bulletin I received yesterday leave takers will lose 4 days of occupational seniority. That might not seem like much, but I can think of several times in my career when one or two numbers meant a lot. I flew until Oct 2009 instead of getting furloughed in April because of about six numbers and initially got LGA as a base when recalled in 2007 by about four numbers.

Still, there will be those who take them and I'd much rather see people on the street voluntarily than the other way around. 300 is 1.7% of the workforce and attrition will take care of about 3/4 of that many in six months.

MK

 

[kirkpatrick]

Recalled fas are former TWA fas who are at the _top_ of the pay scale with all their vacation accrual/sick time intact.

The current batch of "never been recalled" range from 1977 into 1986 seniority. The couple of hundred who have not received letters but have been promised recall by the Mandarin agreement and the remaining 226 on the recall list will be people who will go down to about 1997 seniority, IIRC.

Unfortunately, the current group includes many who were not fifty at the time of furlough and are forced to come back, go through four weeks of training and be active one day (they don't have to actually fly a trip) in order to retire with something. I don't blame the company for this; apparently they cannot offer retirement to inactive people without offering the same thing to active people. It is a shame, however, that they are forced to go through a month of training when all they really want to do is leave. I still think most of those who come back will stay.

MK