What Does It Mean To Be Drafted?

Irregular operations and bad weather can negatively impact our IDs while at work. It’s important that you know what our Contractual legalities are when confronted with a drafting scenario. Sections 2, 9 and 12 of our Contract deal with drafting.

Section 8.G
A Flight Attendant assigned a line of flying and who is drafted either at her/his home domicile or at any away-from-domicile point to fly an ID(s) and is not in position to fly the next scheduled ID(s) shown in her/his schedule, shall receive pay and flight time credit on the basis of the scheduled time shown in her/his schedule or what was actually flown, whichever is greater, for the period during which drafted. In addition to all other applicable pay protection provisions, a drafted Flight Attendant shall receive two hours and thirty minutes (2:30) of pay including premium and language if applicable for pay purposes only.

Drafting is defined in Section 2.I. of our Contract. Lineholders shall be considered drafted when assigned, while off duty, in inverse order of seniority and in priority among those available and qualified. In addition, Lineholders shall be considered drafted when removed from their assigned flight for which they are legal, available and in position to fly, and assigned to cover any other flights.

Drafting is provided for under our Contract after exhausting the Order of Assignment, as set forth in Sections 9.I. and 12.Q. of the Contract.

Furthermore, Section 9.H.3. of the Contract provides that drafting assignments shall not be made more than six (6) hours prior to scheduled departure. Flight Attendants may not decline a drafting assignment. Keep in mind, that once the company applies the drafting provisions of the Contract, there are pay ramifications of which everyone should be aware such as our newly ratified Contract provision that when Flight Attendants are drafted you will receive two hours and thirty minutes (2:30) of extra pay.

First, once drafted, there is no further reassignment under Section 8.J. of the Contract. For example, if drafted from a three day ID to cover a one day ID, there is no further reassignment upon return to the home domicile. In addition, any drafting assignment that would result in a Flight Attendant being illegal for a subsequent ID is pay protected as part of the drafting assignment and the company may not reassign the affected Flight Attendant under Section 8.J. on return to the home domicile.

In addition to the new drafting pay provision there are pay ramifications involving holiday pay when drafted. When drafted away from a holiday ID, to fly a non-holiday ID, the scheduled holiday pay must be considered when making the flight pay calculation. A comparison must be made between the dollar value of the ID flown (including any applicable holiday pay) to the value of the ID from which drafted (including holiday pay.) If the value of the ID from which drafted (including holiday pay) is greater than the value of the ID to which flown, the Flight Attendant is entitled to the pay differential, or the greater of the two. This differential, once calculated as a result of the comparison will be posted in the DFAP in the form of an hour and minute posting.

When given a drafting assignment, we encourage you to have the scheduler clarify that you have, in fact, been drafted and under which section of the Contract this is being done.  Request the scheduler remark the ID appropriately indicating "DRFT". This will assist Flight Time Records when making their manual review of pay associated with each drafting situation.

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