Source: Elines 

With the award of May schedules that occurred earlier this week, we are taking this opportunity to review our how Break Days (BRK) are applied to a Flight Attendant’s schedule at the conjunction of the two schedule months and the Flight Attendant’s ability to resolve a 1:7 Contractual legality conflict.

A “BRK” is a tool used by crew scheduling as a placeholder when a Flight Attendant has a potential 1-in-7 legality present in her/his line. It is also used to prevent inadvertent violations of the 24-in-7 Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR 121.467). Based on current automation, no other scheduling actions may be applied to the line in COSMOS when this potential legality exists. As a work around, placement of a BRK day into the line is required in order to make any further assignment(s). 

Whenever a Reserve is not scheduled with at least one (1) calendar day off at her/his home domicile in any consecutive seven (7) day period, crew scheduling is responsible for providing either a day off or a BRK to resolve the schedule legality issue. 

In these cases, when the Flight Attendant’s new-month schedule is loaded, crew scheduling will insert a BRK somewhere in the block of seven (7) or more days “on” in order to temporarily resolve the conflict.

However and in accordance with JCBA Sections 6.P.3. and 8.I.2., if as a result of the Flight Attendant’s schedule selection, she/he has not been provided one calendar day off in seven, one of the other scheduled days off may be used to provide for the required one calendar day off in a seven day period.  In the case of “1:7” problems resulting from schedule selection, the Flight Attendant should contact scheduling prior to the first day of the [new] schedule month for rescheduling.  Failure to do so will result in the Flight Attendant waiving the 1:7 rule for the seven-day period involved.

Flight Attendants have the negotiated ability to decide if and how she/he would like to reconcile her/his schedule at any time prior to the first day of the schedule month in one of the following ways:

1.   Contact crew scheduling prior to the first day of the new bid month to have the 1-in-7 conflict resolved. 

·     If a BRK has initially been inserted by Scheduling, but the Flight Attendant would prefer to move a day off to resolve the 1-in-7 conflict, she/he may contact scheduling prior to the first day of the new bid month in order to do so. The Flight Attendant may indicate her/his preferences as to which day off will be moved, and these preferences will be considered, if possible.

·     If the Flight Attendant will be a Lineholder in the new month, she/he will work with Scheduling to adjust the schedule. If it is necessary to drop a paring to resolve the 1-in-7 conflict, the Flight Attendant’s preference as to which trip to drop will be considered by scheduling, if possible.

2.   Waive the 1-in-7 legality by doing nothing.If the Flight Attendant does not contact crew scheduling before the first day of the new bid month, the 1-in-7 is considered automatically waived. If waived, the 24-in-7 FAR must be satisfied with a 24-hour period free-from-duty in the consecutive seven (7) days. The BRK will remain unless and until this has occurred.

It is important to remember that a BRK day does not become a permanent day off until the Flight Attendant has been specifically released to the BRK day by crew scheduling.Prior to that time, a BRK may be moved within the block of days where the conflict exists based on operational needs, as long as the 24-in-7 FAR is satisfied.

Unless previously released to the BRK by crew scheduling, Reserves are still required to check for their next-day assignment between 1930 and 2400 HDT by using one of the automated means on the day prior to a BRK in order to ascertain whether or not they have, in fact, been released for the day (RLSD).

If you have additional questions, please contact your Local Council.