Airshambles 1st position – part 1

Five meetings into the negotiations, which are to be conducted in an open, honest manner, in a more positive way than last time and we have got the first card played by the employer relating to what they want.

How predictable.  In making the work environment a better place to work, they want to SHAFT YOU some more.  Way to go, way to build morale; way to win them over.

The first point of order: GET RID OF PORS the obvious route of all evil, that cripple the business and only let them make $106M in 06/07 and more in 07/08.

The employer wants to get rid of PORS, well are they a dead duck, well you can have them, when you take them out of our COLD DEAD HANDs.

Under the enterprise bargaining framework this would represent how much?  Well in our minds it’s worth 50% of our wage.  Want us to give up PORs show us the money, otherwise Piss Off, Right (POR).  This is a significant opportunity to offer us a bloody good pay rise.

 Shift Lengths: They want flexibility to roster 6 to 10 hour shifts as they choose; they don’t want to pretend the teams thing exists, well because it doesn’t.  Note the lack of ‘run of shifts' advice here?  Maybe 6 x 6 hours shifts a week would be much more efficient.

 They don’t want to be held accountable to staff if they don’t want to start working at 5am, get rid of FA requiring the 5am start; well it was only recently changed, but that was because of FRMS, was it not?  We know that 5am starts are debilitating, why would you need to ask staff to turn up at that unholy hour, just tell them to be there.

Triple acquittal:  Once upon a time, as an employer of choice, the employer would recognise the debilitating effect of starting work before 6am; hell 6am starts are tough enough.  To start at say 5am and work through to 3pm, a ten hour shift would be neigh on impossible, we are talking air traffic control here, not sweeping floors or digging ditches, give us a break.  You don’t like it, fine, staff the night shifts properly and avoid paying the triple acquittal.

Start Finish periods:  They want to start and finish shifts as per their whim.  Will we see 4am finishes, 3am starts? Of course we will.  This benevolent employer will do what ever it can; hell they often ignore the rules by ‘reinterpreting them’ give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.  This is SHAFT CENTRAL - the not so thin end of the wedge.

FRMS alternative: Sure bring it on, let’s have real science behind our rosters, seek review of rosters worked from those that work them.  Evidence is one thing reality is another.  If Airshambles had played real attention to the FRMS and used FAID as it was intended then maybe we would have some faith, alas, we do not trust you, CEO - Greg ‘Fencepost Turtle’ Russell, we do not trust you.  What have you given us in the last 3+ years that tells us you are trustworthy, oh yes absolutely nothing, no substance, no rewards, no retraining, no retention, nadda. Hot air and spin that we can all see through, you present very well but your message is management wank word bingo and it doesn’t cut the mustard.

Get rid of rostering Committees:  Hell they are obviously just a hindrance, how dare the workers put forward their point of view on rosters.  Notice subtle use of ‘centrally constructed’, yes they are going to buy another crap piece of software that will give them optimal efficiency and you no life whatsoever.  Of course it will work, trust us, the last 7 attempts have been abject failures because of PORs, not the products themselves; see point one.

Reasonable overtime:

They want to ‘spread’ the overtime pain, a fair enough concept, if we were all robot drones with the same extra curricular activities.  We aren’t.  If you are young and free, perhaps travel, dating, partying on your days off are more important than work.  If you are in the family realm, then maybe family activities, kids sport, birthday parties, special days are more important than going to work, if you are now free of kids and enjoying your later years, perhaps beers with mates, gardening, playing golf, having a punt, are more important than going to work. Some of us have no desire to improve our income, but would rather focus on non work activities, some of us obviously don't like our homes, because some of us are always at work, improving our incomes.

If you want us to reprioritise our lives, then SHOW US THE MONEY!  Getting less now for overtime than 3 years ago is not exactly the ‘incentive’ for going to work on your days off.  

Traditionally overtime is ‘double time’ obviously taking .15 off this community-normalised target is not enough incentive to give up other activities.  Then again it is about balance.  If we could actually get days off without calls to come in, perhaps we would be more willing to enjoy the extra cash on the occasional overtime shift; because we would be properly rested.  A significant amount of rosters do not have enough staff to cover base rosters, still.  Those that do often don’t have enough leave lines to acquit accrued leave; and you wonder why we have issues.

The real issue is not just TIBA and TRAs, which happen when only one or no ATCs are available, but how many times have we been below minimum staffing without any evidence of a NOTAM to industry and we the controller keep going despite at times being overloaded make it work.

Stanby shifts to apply to morning and nightshifts.  What do they mean?  Do they want to have grey day doggos?  What are grey days?  Oh yes we forgot to mention, PISS OFF!

Targeted additional shifts, this means they can call you and you can’t say no.  PISS OFF!  Roster us on or bugger off; we owe you 36 hours a week, that's what you pay us for.

Overall this is a pathetic effort from a pathetic employer, if we had a choice we'd be leaving in droves, whoops, we are; it's more an effort than seeking a job in the next suburb, but we are going; get used to it.