Tue, Dec 16, 2008
Cites Carrier's 'Mismanagement Of Critical Immunity
Provisions'
Chalk up another airline that will no longer participate in the
FAA's Aviation Safety Action Program. The US Airline Pilots
Association (USAPA) announced Monday it has allowed their contract
of participation in ASAP to expire, citing alleged cases of
retribution against pilots.
ASAP was established to allow employees to voluntarily report
safety problems and incidents without penalty, with certain
exceptions including the involvement of alcohol, substance abuse or
criminal activities. It was the FAA's goal that this
information-sharing program could help prevent airline accidents by
encouraging employees to voluntarily report safety issues without
fear of retribution and with immunity... a noble effort USAPA says
has been flagrantly ignored by USA Airways management.
"Although immunity provisions are a safety industry standard
adopted by such lauded programs as the NASA Safety Reporting
System, USAPA believes US Airways' insistence on diluting these
provisions has rendered them effectively useless," the union
writes. "The program was originally scheduled to lapse in early
2008 but had been extended repeatedly by USAPA in an attempt to
reconcile disagreements regarding the diluted immunity
provision."
As ANN reported, earlier this month the Allied
Pilots Association (representing the American Airlines Pilots) and
the Air Line Pilots Association (representing Delta and Comair
Pilots) also allowed their participation in the ASAP to expire on
similar grounds, concerned their respective airlines were using the
program to discipline pilots for inadvertent and minor safety
infringements.
Like USAPA, those unions also requested that stronger measures
be built in to the program to protect the integrity of this
important safety program.
"We
are extremely disappointed that our patient attempts with
Management to protect the integrity of this valuable safety program
have failed to produce cooperation. We are left with no choice but
to allow the program to lapse. USAPA is committed to a proactive
safety mindset. As a component of that effort, we cannot tolerate a
dilution of the essential protective provisions that other
effective safety reporting programs incorporate," said Steve
Bradford, President of USAPA. "We are troubled by the deteriorating
state of labor/management relations that failed to produce any
movement on these issues despite repeated extensions of the
agreement meant to provide opportunity for teamwork."
NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is still in
place. The ASRS similarly allows pilots and other aviation
personnel to voluntarily report any safety issues they witness.
USAPA represents over 5,000 US Airways pilots in seven domiciles
across the United States.
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