Dear Mainline Service Directors and Flight Attendants,
Your Component Executive is providing an update on post ground duty claims and their filing. We have received numerous inquiries relating to who is required to submit the claim for post ground duty credits. Our previous bulletin, which you will find below indicates that it is the Service Directors who are responsible for submitting these claims. At a time when we are relying on every penny it is crucial that these claims are filed. We are relying on our Service Directors to ensure that these claims are filed regardless of how small they may be. We understand that this is just more work for our hard-working Service Director colleagues. Having said that we already do enough work for free and kindly ask that Service Directors file these claims on behalf of your crew as every minute counts!!!
Only Service Directors can submit claims if crew are required to remain on board beyond the 15 minutes after flight arrival (the end of your duty period). Examples of this include an excessive number of passengers requiring wheelchair assistance, deplaning issues, post arrival emergency or medical, or the passenger hold and metering process. For clarity, there is no minimum duration for post ground duty claims and the clock starts ticking for claims after the 15 minutes post arrival time. You can submit a claim for i.e. 10 minutes if you were off duty at 1715 (flight arrived at 1700) and ended up deplaning at 1725.
5.08 GROUND DUTY – PRE/POST PERIOD – Where an employee is required to report for duty prior to or remain on duty following the termination of a Duty Period under Article B5.03, s/he shall be paid at one-half (½) of the hourly rate of pay for his/her classification applicable to the duty period involved.
The GROUND DUTY – POST DUTY claims process is as follows:
- Service Directors must document the incident in eOBR
- Service Directors must submit the claim in eClaim. (Please note that eClaim currently only references ground duty claims for service provided to passengers under article 5.09 and requires you to respond to questions to continue (see below), however please clearly detail the reasons for the claim in the “description of service” box, also ensuring that you indicate that the claim is for POST GROUND DUTY CREDITS under article 5.08.
(**As per the Company’s December 3, 2021 IFS News Bulletin, the process when submitting a Ground Duty Claim via eClaim has been streamlined and SD’s are no longer required to contact an IFS Manager (to obtain a signature or an approval), should the claim not be immediately approved. Claims will be automatically shared between base managers and reviewed as they are processed.)
If your claim is denied, please forward a copy of the denied claim and any other relevant information to your Local Union Office so that an individual/group grievance can be filed on your behalf.
Screenshots from eClaim:
As always, if you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to your Local Union office.
In solidarity,
