Southwest Airlines releases ’memo’ for employees, expert calls it ’insanity’
- In a memo released for employees, the airlines asked employees who call out sick will be fired if no illness note from a doctor 'IN PERSON'.
With news of Southwest Airlines scrubbing thousands of flights again on 27 December in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the US, epidemiologist and health economist Eric Feigl-Ding slammed the airliner over its new policy and memo to airport employees.
Ding noted the airliner policy as insane as Southwest Airlines on 21 December released a memo for employees, in which it asked employees who call out sick will be fired if no illness note from a doctor 'IN PERSON'.
Ding also shared the Southwest Airlines' notification on Twitter.
Under one of the clause mentioned in the memo say, "Due to the emergency, the company will deny requests for reported personal absence (RPA). Agents will be directed to work their regular shifts. Failure to comply will be considered insubordination and will result in termination."
Apart from this, the firm also said that it will use mandatory overtime regardless of employee's status and cited emergency. "If an employee refuses to work the mandatory overtime, failure to comply will be considered insubordination and will result in termination," it said.
Also, the shift hours has been increased to 12 hours.
Earlier, a day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the storm, Southwest called off about 2,600 more flights on the East Coast by late afternoon. Those flights accounted for more than 80% of the 3,000 trips that got canceled nationwide Tuesday, according to tracking service FlightAware.
The airline also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,400 for Thursday as it tried to restore order to its mangled schedule.
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First Published:28 Dec 2022, 06:38 PM IST
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