Narrative:

I was in the cockpit preparing aircraft for flight. Subsequently; the first officer arrives. He performed the walkaround preflight and in normal conversation advises me that I was almost solo this morning. I figured it referred to being slightly late. When queried; he responded that he had awakened sick this morning; subsequently vomited and felt as if someone was stabbing his ear. I queried him as to his fitness for duty. He responded in the affirmative. Later inflight; he advised me that his bones and skin hurt and asked me if I would fly all legs due to his illness. I did not want to make him uncomfortable and advised him I would. Stopping the operation in ZZZZ due to his illness was not an option. On arrival; I had a discussion with his as captain to first officer. I asked him why he would consider showing up for flight duty in such an ill state. He advised me that he was intimidated by the air carrier's new sick harassment policies and that is why he showed up sick. I again asked him to clarify that he was intimidated into flying while sick; and he answered in the affirmative. I also provided a caution as to his judgement both from a courtesy standpoint and from a safety standpoint. He then stated that the economic duress that the air carrier has caused by docking other pilots' pay in conjunction with their tracking of sick time and in particular their tracking of sick time near the holidays; has caused him to knowingly fly while sick and that he will continue to do so until he hears from the union that things are different. In the future; I will never commence a flight with an ill crewmember. As I am not a doctor; I had no way of telling how sick this first officer would become.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain details incident where B757 First Officer reports for work ill; citing air carrier sick policies as an intimidating factor in his decision making.

Narrative: I was in the cockpit preparing aircraft for flight. Subsequently; the First Officer arrives. He performed the walkaround preflight and in normal conversation advises me that I was almost solo this morning. I figured it referred to being slightly late. When queried; he responded that he had awakened sick this morning; subsequently vomited and felt as if someone was stabbing his ear. I queried him as to his fitness for duty. He responded in the affirmative. Later inflight; he advised me that his bones and skin hurt and asked me if I would fly all legs due to his illness. I did not want to make him uncomfortable and advised him I would. Stopping the operation in ZZZZ due to his illness was not an option. On arrival; I had a discussion with his as Captain to First Officer. I asked him why he would consider showing up for flight duty in such an ill state. He advised me that he was intimidated by the air carrier's new sick harassment policies and that is why he showed up sick. I again asked him to clarify that he was intimidated into flying while sick; and he answered in the affirmative. I also provided a caution as to his judgement both from a courtesy standpoint and from a safety standpoint. He then stated that the economic duress that the air carrier has caused by docking other pilots' pay in conjunction with their tracking of sick time and in particular their tracking of sick time near the holidays; has caused him to knowingly fly while sick and that he will continue to do so until he hears from the Union that things are different. In the future; I will never commence a flight with an ill crewmember. As I am not a doctor; I had no way of telling how sick this First Officer would become.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.