FAA Shift Work and Schedules

zabnut Senior Member Albuquerque

First thing I should clarify is the link I got the information is a local's website and the phrase in question is NOT part of the actual seniority order, it is from a local Q an A and obviously should have had some different wording in it.

**** Your interpretation of "Could" is more out of the .65 than from the real intent of the local information. All it is saying is that it CAN include more than one type of service (Does not have to though) If you are saying we COULD remove retired time and INCLUDE 4 years of military and that is ok, then I don't follow you at all. If the intent was to EXCLUDE military retired time then it would say so in the actual order, it does not , as I read it is says include ACTIVE military and federal service time.


1 Unless you get an age waiver you won't be retiring from the military and become an Air Traffic Controller. However you are correct in not being able to "Double Dip" annuities. I NEVER said that you could get both, EVER.

2. This is Seniority, NOT annuity we are talking here.

Last point is I was originally making a comment/clarification on the fact that TB was saying Military time was the first tie breaker and you would ALWAYS be senior to someone if you both walked in the same day and they had less federal time.

This tangent of not counting retired vs other military/federal time was not part of my discussion but somehow brought up and is incorrect anyhow, the chances of it coming up is so small I am unsure why it was even brought up.

expedited101 Newcomer

Mclaren99 Junior Member Southern Region CPC

You don't have to take leave if you want to leave the facility for a meal break anymore. This changed with the new contract. If there is a facility that does it differently they are wrong and it can and should be grieved through NATCA.

If you do leave you still have to be back by the alotted timefor a meal break. So in most cases it is pointless anyway to leave the facility because there is just not enough time, but being charged Annual Leave to do this should absolutely not be happening. There is no difference between terminal and enroute for this.

kririn Rookie Colorado

also the credit hours the original posts refers to don't exist anymore

Made me sad since I managed to use nothing but credit leave after I checked out and saved all my annual that was only accruing at 4 hrs/PP *lol* Alas - now i have to suck it up and use annual and count down the 1 more year until the next jump to 6 hrs/PP

vm2152 Senior Member

Thats cute how this letter may not mention a difference between retired and just a few years in the military... retired time does not count for SCD, period. This is OPM standards.

Find me a retiree from the military that has that time represented on his SF-50 as a SCD.

lecoyle Rookie

Could someone explain sick leave a little better? More specifically the limitations? I am a young female looking to probably get married around the same time I will be hired... I know we both want kids pretty soon after marriage, so it would be nice to know how this really works out. Thanks.

Rosstafari Daaaang. /X

You accumulate four hours of sick leave for every two weeks (ten working days). In other words, after you've worked a month, you get a sick day off. You can take it whenever you want, and you can accumulate it up to a certain number that I can't recall right now. Also, if you become incapacitated for the long term or something else similar, coworkers can donate sick leave to you.

With all that said, the Family Medical Leave Act requires all employers to give you a good amount of time off for maternity leave. Even though we just had our kid six months ago, I can't remember how long it is... four to six months I think. You can choose to take it before you give birth, if you'd like. There are a few provisions on how to use it, but it's easy stuff to find on Google.

Finally... not to be a downer, but pregnancy and training don't mix well. A CPC who spends six months away will take some time to readjust and regain their proficiency. A developmental will take much longer. Be aware that if you're going down this road, you're likely to run into a much longer training time if a pregnancy interrupts it. I'd imagine that a small VFR tower would be more forgiving when it comes to getting back in the swing of things, but I've never been at one, so I don't know from personal experience.

One lesson my wife and I learned: don't plan your life around what you expect the FAA to do in hiring. We delayed having a baby for a year because of it. Finally we just decided to get the ball rolling. Turned out that his due date was less than a week from when I had to leave for the Academy. Didn't matter -- you only get one trip through, don't put off the most important things for any job. We've never regretted having our kid when we did, even with the additional challenges it brought.

Just my two cents.

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

i dont think there is a limit for sick leave...just annual

Barney13 Senior Member where u all wanna be...

4 hours per pay period until 6 years in
6 hours per pay period until 15 years.
15 years and over ,8 hours annual earned per pay period.

klkm Senior Member

FMLA will cover you basically forever when you have a kid. Yes the actual maternity/fraternity leave is only for x amount of months but after that you can claim FMLA anytime your kid is sick, you lack a babysitter, or im sure some other reasons. Also I believe the new contract we are up to 3 days of sick leave in a row without any explanation needed. After that they can question your leave and ask for a note etc.

So basically, most people use their sick leave for having kids...or to go to a BBQ on the weekends during the summer when you have wed/thurs off. Or to go skiing in the winter, or really any other reason then actually being sick. This is due to the fact that actually getting annual leave is near impossible most of the time due to the minimum staffing numbers, except during the required prime time leave period that you bid a year out.