Q. What is a Voluntary Duty Waiver? – LAA / LUS

A: The Voluntary Duty Waiver option allows Flight Attendants to voluntarily waive their max duty day. Once the duty day max is waived, it cannot be rescinded. Additionally, once the crew agrees to extend their duty day, they will be paid the additional pay even if they don’t exceed their duty day limitations. Section 11.O.1 (Domestic) and Section 14.D.1 (International).

Here’s how it works:

Domestic: When a crew waives their operational duty day max, each crewmember who agrees to the waiver shall be paid (but not credited) an additional one (1) minute flight pay for every two (2) minutes on duty for the entire duty period. This additional pay is on top of any pay for the sequence.

In the example below, when the delay in CLT was posted, it projected the crew’s duty day to exceed 15:00 hours by 2 minutes. Therefore, the crew may voluntarily waive their duty day maximum to receive an additional one (1) minute of flight pay for every two (2) minutes on duty for the entire duty period. In this example, 8:37 hours (actual block) + 7:31 hours (15:02 divided by 2) = 16:08 hours (total pay for sequence).

It is important to note that had the crew made up time from CLT-DFW, therefore actually arriving in DFW at 2027, they still would have earned the additional pay, even though their actual duty day equaled less than their 15 hours max.

Also, please note 8:37 hours are paid and credited, while the 7:31 hours are paid only.

For LAA, the max duty time limits are determined by the chart in the CLA On Duty Contract Guide (ODCG) page 9.
For LUS, the max duty time limits are determined by the LUS Red Book charts found in Section 11.E and Section 11.F.

Example:

SCHEDULED AND ACTUAL
SCH         DFW        0700          CLT          1025
ACT                          0700                          1115

SCH          CLT         1125           RDU       1220
ACT                          1215                         1330

SCH          RDU       1435           CLT        1540
ACT                         1435                         1540       
                                    
SCH          CLT        1625           DFW       1827
ACT                         1845                          2047

SCHEDULED DUTY DAY     = 12:45                      
SCHEDULED BLOCK TIME =   7:27
ACTUAL DUTY DAY             = 15:02                
ACTUAL BLOCK TIME         =   8:37

PAY FOR THIS SEQUENCE IS AS FOLLOWS:
8:37 FLIGHT PAY
+
7:31 VOLUNTARY DUTY WAIVER PAY (15:02 divided by 2)
=
16:08 TOTAL PAY FOR SEQUENCE

International: The Voluntary Duty Waiver applies to all duty periods scheduled 12 hours or less flying time with a scheduled duty day max of 14 hours, i.e., Non Long Range Flying.  If the flight in this duty period is delayed, projecting the crew to exceed their duty day of 16 hours is projected, then Crew Schedule may offer the crew to exceed their max duty day of 16 hours. If the crew agrees, they will receive pay for the duty period of 200%, including premiums, but the flight time will be credited at 100%.

In the example below, the crew was originally scheduled to be on duty for 13.30 hours and their scheduled flying time was 12 hours.  The flight was delayed, projecting their duty day to exceed 16 hours.  The crew volunteered to exceed their duty day max limit of 16 hours, receiving 200% pay for their duty period. Pay for this duty day was 12 hours x 200% of each crewmember’s applicable pay rate. If a crewmember’s pay rate is $58.58/hr, then that crewmember was paid 12 hours x $117.16/hr.  If the duty period included any duty rig, it would also be paid at 200%.

SKD   LAX 1130  NRT 1630  VE 12.00                     
ACT    LAX 1516  NRT 2202  VE 11.46  12.00              
D/P GTR 12.00       P/C  0.00  TL 12.00                       
SKD ONDUTY 13.30                                   
ACT ONDUTY 17.02