American Airlines will provide pay protection to flight attendants who lost time as a direct result of flight cancellations during the recent grounding of the airline's MD80 fleet. According to an announcement posted on April 10, 2008 to the website of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union representing American Airlines flight attendants, "This pay protection applies not only to monthly guarantee but also to those who have lost high-time hours as well as commuters who were unable to make their trips - as a result of the MD80 re-inspections - after having followed commuter policy guidelines."A separate agreement, also announced on April 10, 2008, provides American Airlines flight attendants with a mechanism to restore Personal Vacation Days (PVDs) that were voluntarily used to supplement pay following last month's MD80 cancellations. Flight attendants who used PVDs to protect loss of pay will have the option to make up time in order to restore the PVDs that were used.
Letters of Understanding for both the pay protection agreement and the PVD recovery agreement stipulate that they are offered on a non-precedent setting basis. Details can be found in the following documents:
- Letter of Understanding between APFA and American Airlines, regarding MD-80 Fleet Inspection Cancellation Pay Protection - April 10, 2008 (2-page 'pdf' file)
- Letter of Understanding between APFA and American Airlines, regarding March 2008 Personal Vacation Day (PVD) Recovery - April 10, 2008 (2-page 'pdf' file)
- Flight Attendant Pay Protection Q & As - APFA (2-page 'pdf' file)
