OJI Guide: What Flight Attendants Need to Know About On-the-Job Injuries — and How a Union Contract Can Strengthen Our Protections For OJI

This reference guide is for Delta Flight Attendants who are organizing our Union. Use these points to talk with coworkers about how the current On-the-Job Injury (OJI) and Workers’ Compensation process works, why we believe it leaves injured flight attendants without a real advocate, and how a legally binding Union contract could improve the treatment and outcomes we receive when we get hurt at work.

1. How Our Workers’ Compensation Claims Are Handled Today

When you are injured at work, you should be able to focus entirely on healing. Instead, in our experience, injured Flight Attendants too often have to navigate a claims process built around the company's costs rather than their recovery.

Delta uses a third-party administrator (TPA), Sedgwick, to process our claims. Under that structure:

• Sedgwick is retained and paid by Delta. Its job is to administer claims on Delta’s behalf. It does not represent you, and it is not your advocate. And your interests and the company’s cost interests don’t necessarily align.
• Sedgwick markets itself on speed and cost containment. On its own website, Sedgwick advertises that workers’ compensation claims it oversees have a shorter duration than the industry average. Faster file-closing can be good management — but for an injured worker, closing the file can also mean care ending before recovery is complete. We think flight attendants deserve to weigh that for themselves.
• The only people whose job is to represent you are your own attorney and your Union representative (when we win this Union election). No one in the current system is on your side by design. That is the gap a Union is meant to fill.

Where a claim is filed can change what you receive. Workers’ compensation benefits are set by state law and vary widely from state to state. Because of that, the state whose law governs your claim can make a real difference in your benefits. We believe flight attendants should not have to worry that a claim will be steered toward a state with lower benefits rather than the state where they are based or where the injury occurred. Whether any particular filing is improper is a legal question that depends on the facts and the states involved — but it is exactly the kind of uncertainty a contract can remove.

Occupational disease is often the forgotten category. The system is built mainly around sudden, accidental injuries. Conditions that develop over time from the demands of this job — repetitive strain, hearing loss, and other occupational illnesses — can be harder to get recognized and covered, and they often follow different filing rules and deadlines than accident claims. Many flight attendants do not realize that a slowly developing work-related condition may be compensable at all. A contract can address occupational disease head-on.

2. “It Won’t Happen to Me” — The Reality of This Job

If you haven’t been hurt yet, workers’ compensation may feel like someone else’s problem. The physical reality of this job says otherwise. Turbulence, heavy aircraft doors, lifting and stowing all carry real risk of injury.

Over a full career, it is overwhelmingly likely that you will file workers’ compensation claims at some point in your career. That makes OJI protection not a fringe issue but an essential part of your job security. The time to secure strong protections is before you are injured, in pain, and financially stretched — not after.

3. What We Could Negotiate in a Union Contract

Organizing gives us the legal standing to bargain. A Union contract cannot reduce the workers’ compensation benefits state law already guarantees you — but it can build on top of that floor, adding protections the law does not require the company to provide. Flight attendants at other carriers have negotiated exactly these kinds of provisions. Here is what we could push for:

• Certainty about which law governs our claims. We could negotiate contract language that fixes which state’s law applies to occupational-injury claims and bars the company from contesting a favorable jurisdiction. Flight attendants at carriers such as United, Southwest, and Alaska have negotiated provisions addressing where and under what state’s law their claims are decided. Benefit: You stop guessing where your claim will land, and you are protected from having your claim steered toward a low-benefit state.
• The right to choose our own treating doctor. In some states, employers may direct injured workers to a company-selected panel of physicians. We could negotiate a contractual right to select our own treating doctor. Benefit: You choose the physician focused on your recovery — not a provider chosen by the company.
• Coverage for occupational disease, not just accidents. We could negotiate contract language that expressly recognizes occupational illnesses that develop over time and provides support in pursuing those claims. Benefit: Conditions caused by years of physical demands are treated as the work-related injuries they are.
• A guaranteed minimum disability benefit. State wage-replacement rates vary, and some are strikingly low. We could negotiate a minimum weekly benefit floor into our contract. Benefit: No matter where your claim is processed, your income while you recover would never drop below a negotiated standard.
• Vacation and sick-leave buy-back so 100% of your time away is paid. Statutory workers’ comp typically replaces only a portion of your wages. We could negotiate a buy-back that lets you use — and be made whole for — accrued vacation and sick leave so that the full time you are out recovering is paid, not just a fraction of it. Benefit: You recover on full pay, and your earned time off is protected rather than drained.

4. Quick Talking Points for the Jumpseat

• Sedgwick works for Delta — not for us. Sedgwick is hired and paid by Delta to administer our claims. The only people whose job is to represent you are your own attorney and a Union rep. A Union contract could fix which state’s law governs our claims and bar the company from contesting a favorable jurisdiction — like flight attendants at other carriers have done.
• Where your claim is filed can change what you get. Benefits vary a lot state to state. A contract can lock in the rules instead of leaving it to chance.
• Occupational disease counts too. It’s not just falls and door injuries. If you get sick while at work with Covid or other diseases that should be covered too — and a contract can guarantee that.
• You could be paid 100% while you heal. Workers’ comp usually pays only part of your wages. A contract with vacation and sick-leave buy-back could keep you on full pay while you recover.
• It hasn’t happened to me — yet. This job is physically demanding, and over a career most of us will file claims at some point in our career. Don’t wait until you’re hurt and short a paycheck to wish you had a contract behind you.

This guide is for informational and organizing purposes only. It is not legal advice and workers’ compensation rights, benefits, and procedures are set by law and vary by state. Flight attendants with questions about a specific injury or claim should consult a qualified attorney.