A captain discovered that one of his flight attendants was too sick to fly during the crew briefing ...

Narrative:

All crewmembers met at crew room before the show time. During that time I noticed that a flight attendant was visibly sick; she was coughing and she mentioned that she had a fever. She mentioned that she was taking codeine and had a doctor's certificate for it. I asked her to call scheduling and call in sick. She said that 'she was afraid to call in sick and that if she did; the company would fire her'. I informed her that I did not feel safe flying with her; not only for the crew safety also for passengers in the condition that she was in. I called scheduling talked and informed the scheduler of the situation; my decision of not flying with the sick flight attendant. I requested a different crewmember to fly the trip. Another flight attendant replaced her. We started the trip on time. I was surprised that a crewmember would show up taking codeine a narcotic (controlled substance). I was not surprised at the reason that she gave me for not calling in sick. Fear of discipline caused a cabin attendant to use poor judgment. She would rather put us all in difficult situation than call in sick even when there is a doctor's certificate. Not to mention how this would affect our passengers if they had found out that one of the cabin crew is taking codeine on duty. I believe that company should re-examine how they handle the sick calls and how it could affect the safety of all crewmembers and passengers.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Captain discovered that one of his flight attendants was too sick to fly during the crew briefing and requested another. The Flight Attendant was fearful of loosing her job if she called in sick.

Narrative: All crewmembers met at crew room before the show time. During that time I noticed that a Flight Attendant was visibly sick; she was coughing and she mentioned that she had a fever. She mentioned that she was taking Codeine and had a doctor's certificate for it. I asked her to call scheduling and call in sick. She said that 'She was afraid to call in sick and that if she did; the company would fire her'. I informed her that I did not feel safe flying with her; not only for the crew safety also for passengers in the condition that she was in. I called scheduling talked and informed the scheduler of the situation; my decision of not flying with the sick Flight Attendant. I requested a different crewmember to fly the trip. Another Flight Attendant replaced her. We started the trip on time. I was surprised that a crewmember would show up taking Codeine a narcotic (controlled substance). I was not surprised at the reason that she gave me for not calling in sick. Fear of discipline caused a cabin attendant to use poor judgment. She would rather put us ALL in difficult situation than call in sick even when there is a doctor's certificate. Not to mention how this would affect our passengers if they had found out that one of the cabin crew is taking Codeine on duty. I believe that company should re-examine how they handle the sick calls and how it could affect the safety of all crewmembers and passengers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	850459
Time
Date	200908
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness

A captain discovered that one of his flight attendants was too sick to fly during the crew briefing and requested another. The flight attendant was fearful of loosing her job if she called in sick.