United Airlines has become embroiled in yet another controversy over how it treats its flight attendants after the Chicago-based carrier was accused of intimidating crew members from taking federally protected sick leave.
In a leaked internal email shared by aviation insider xJonNYC on X and Bluesky, United has begun demanding that flight attendants who submit a request for federal sick leave supply the airline with “substantial medical facts” to back up their application.
While that might sound reasonable, the email then goes on to warn that the medical information supplied will not only be used to determine whether the sick leave request will be approved, but also whether the crew is fit to continue being employed as a flight attendant.
“Please submit substantial medical facts to support how your condition incapacitates you on an unforeseeable/intermittent basis for up to 4 times per month/up to 3 days which is a total of 12 days per month. This information is not only required to determine approval of your FML request but also to determine if you are fit to work as a Flight Attendant.”
United Airlines email to flight attendants requesting FMLA leave
Sources say that last part has had a chilling effect on flight attendants who fear they will lose their jobs if they proceed with their application for sick leave.
The policy is connected with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which guarantees employees of large companies access to up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave a year, while maintaining group health benefits.
The rules for aircrew differ from those of other employees, and flight attendants are generally considered eligible to make use of FMLA if they have worked 504 or more duty hours in the last 12 months.
“Email UA flight crew get after submitting FMLA request”
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) 25 June 2025 at 16:09
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The Family and Medical Leave Act makes provisions for flight attendants to take leave on an intermittent basis, rather than in one go for a specific illness or medical treatment.
For example, if a flight attendant needed physiotherapy for a bad back or knee, they could take intermittent FMLA leave. Although the therapy might only take a few hours, the appointment would wipe an entire day from the crew members’ schedule, and flight attendants can claim FMLA for a whole trip spanning several days.
In United’s email to flight attendants, the airline suggests it wants strong evidence for a crew member taking up to three days off, several times a month, for something as simple as a few physiotherapy appointments.
The questionable email from United comes just over a week after the airline won a legal battle with the flight attendant union over a sickness policy that had been slammed as ‘reprehensible.’
Last July, United started to demand that flight attendants provide a doctor’s note if they called out sick over the weekend, no matter how short their period of sickness was.
Flight attendants who failed to obtain an official absence certificate at their own expense and then submit it to the airline within 72 hours of going sick faced disciplinary action, including the threat of termination.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) challenged the policy, arguing that their contract prohibited United from demanding absence certificates with the exception of the Fourth of July and Christmas holiday period.
An independent arbitrator, however, ruled that United did, in fact, have unilateral power to demand an absence certificate when there was evidence of “abuse or misuse of sick leave.”
In the run-up to the sickness policy coming into force, United said there had been a “dramatic and sustained surge in weekend sick calls,” and at one point, nearly a quarter of flight attendants scheduled to work over the weekend were going sick.
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The weekend sickness policy was stood down only a few months after it was implemented, but the arbitrator’s decision will allow United to bring it back in at a moment’s notice.
United’s senior vice president of Inflight Services, John Slater, recently revealed that sick calls at weekends were again spiking just like they did last summer, and reserved the right to demand absence certificates unless the situation changes.
As well as the ‘intimidating’ email, United has also been accused of hiring private detectives to spy on flight attendants taking FMLA leave.
Last month, a crew member sued the airline after he was terminated on the back of photos taken by an investigator who had been tasked with following him while he was recovering from a work-related injury.
The use of FMLA leave amongst flight attendants has long been a contentious issue for airlines, and in June 2023, an American Airlines flight attendant who had survived breast cancer was accused of FMLA fraud after taking time off work to have reconstructive breast surgery.
United Airlines did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Intimidation or a sensible precaution? Let me know your thoughts on United’s leaked email in the comments below…
Does nobody understand FMLA? Or why this email sent to ONE flight attendant on their specific issue is 100% legal?
I mean, this is all addressed right out on the FAQ page of the US Department of Labor… right down to the phrases:
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla/faq
(Q) Do I have to give my employer my medical records for leave due to a serious health condition?
No. An employee is not required to give the employer his or her medical records. The employer, however, does have a statutory right to request that an employee provide medical certification containing sufficient medical facts to establish that a serious health condition exists.