SDE - Service Delivery Environments - Part 2

The cost of implementing SDE is vaguely acknowledged between $2.5M and $5M depending on whom you talk to. 

But what is the real cost?

Training for new airspace, mapping, man hours, hazard assessments, procedures rewrites, man hours on the project etc. is what has been tracked as costs of implementation.

But what about the real costs?

These include the costs of 'surrendering' ratings which previously had a significant cost basis as per the above costs.  The costs of additional overtime needed due to rosters now being cut at some places below 'new' minimum staffing levels.  

Some groups that have been combined with other groups within the SDE the cost of subsequent training for the new 'same group' ratings is not captured in the costs of implementation but have been pushed into group budgets.

What of training?

Group training programs have required full re-writes, has this been included in implementation or simply within group costs?  This is more than documentation and procedures rewrites.  Sources tell us that some groups ran in excess of 60 simulator exercises across all their sectors; that's right effectively 60 full days training wasted on every group, just updating exercises, if you are lucky.

Has any of the changes at the 'Acadamy' been captured?  

Airspace redesign, rewriting exercises, theory amendments etc.

Are new trainees getting 'streamed' within a stream?  If you are going to be placed with UAS; why learn all that low level traffic, SARWATCH, LSALT type stuff?

Cost, cost, cost. Not captured we'd bet.

Let's not mention the cost, not otherwise financially based.  These include the cost on staff in terms of morale (particularly those who now consider their role not as valuable as it used to be), the cost in reputation with industry in terms of TIBA and otherwise employed traffic management strategies, the cost of the employer/employee relationship. 

But we are now better positioned to provide a better service to our customers, sure?

ANZAC DAY - Long weekend

Friday was a public holiday in Australia, a day in which we give pause and reflection to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate good of those who follow either as individuals, as communities, or as a nation.  They have helped carve in the pages of history who we are today.

Collectively from all the authors here this blog, thank-you so much to the individuals and families that gave so much.  

By world standards our national sacrifice although small in number (when considered globally) was significant to the nation; to you the men, women and in some cases children, that made the sacrifice without seeking praise or heroism, you deserve that title (hero) and our thanks, recognition and at the very least our reflection.

In the spirit of the ANZAC,  we hope "beyond hopes" that any outcomes in this 2008/2009 edition of "Certified Shafting" keep that spirit in mind.  

Any industrial battles we face, whilst personally requiring sacrifice and effort, will be for our long-term benefit and will establish the basis of employment conditions for those that follow.

No more conditional rises; no trade-offs and no more sacrificing the Terms & Conditions of those not yet in the ranks.

It is up to us, to honour the spirit of the ANZACs:

As per the Australian War Memorial website:

The legend of ANZAC was born on 25 April 1915, and was reaffirmed in eight months’ fighting on Gallipoli. Although there was no military victory, the Australians displayed great courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship. Such qualities came to be seen as the ANZAC spirit.

Many saw the ANZAC spirit as having been born of egalitarianism and mutual support. According to the stereotype, the ANZAC rejected unnecessary restrictions, possessed a sardonic sense of humour, was contemptuous of danger, and proved himself the equal of anyone on the battlefield.

Australians still invoke the ANZAC spirit in times of conflict, danger and hardship.

Not a good sign

We have just received advice from the unions Executive Secretary as of 24 April 2008.

"We wrote to the CEO on 18/4 formally requesting commencement of negotiations. No response has yet been received."

Negotiations are described in the existing agreement to commence no later than 8 months prior to the expiry of the current agreement.  So already Airservices Australia are potentially in breach of their agreement, again.  

Not a good start given the CEOs recent releases to staff that the culture of animosity and that the adversarial nature of bargaining must stop.  

We know, we know, it's the unions fault!  - Well they did only give three days notice; it's not like we had 21 April 2008 marked as a special day in our corporate diary.  You people, what is it you're looking for, another beating?

SDE - Service Delivery Environments - Part 1

(picture with thanks to Dilbert)

We have seen a huge amount of re organisation within Airservices Australia over the last 3 years.  Our CEO commenced employment in July 2005.  This was at the 'tail end' of our previous negotiations for our Certified Agreement.  There was essentially no concessions awarded during that period of negotiation.

Despite this Air Traffic Controllers failed to take industrial action to improve their claim.  Why not?  

Cost.

Any effective air traffic control industrial action involves the withdrawal of labour (either stopping overtime or stopping work) or "working to rule" making the system less efficient, ie banning track shortening or with holding speed increases.  This obviously translates to increased costs.  Was this the primary consideration? No.

The previous federal government was in the final throws of laying down the "Workchoices" legislation in 2005.  There were rumours about 'invoking essential services provisions'; otherwise known as making it illegal for you to take industrial action.

Essentially the advice that union members received was a choice to either take this "bad deal" or be prepared to pay for a long and lengthy arbitration process, a pay freeze of 18+ months likely, then at the end of that arbitration process you may find the original "bad deal" looked better than the arbitrated outcome.

The levy being discussed at the time was approximately $1000 per head; to pay for legal cost for arbitration.  The joys of a small membership base.  This was on top of the approximate $1000 annual membership fee of the relevant union. 

Since that time we have 'restructured' the business.  This may or may not have been about sacking the 'dead wood' at the top; nearly every level two or executive manager has been moved on in the corresponding 3 years.

The new CEO has 'reformed' Air Traffic Control into 3 distinct streams.  Upper Airspace Services (UAS), Regional Services (RS) and East Coast Services (ECS).  UAS and RS exists at present in some sort of quasi separate business; but share staff consoles and resources.  Regional Towers have been combined into one 'supa group'.  ECS have had airspace restructure to carve off no 'ECS model' airspace to UAS and RS; particularly the low airspace has been moved to RS.

But at what cost?  Was it a good idea?

Staffing Crisis resolved by June 2008

Greg Russell is either deliberately lying or he still believes the information being feed up the chain; let’s hope its the later, because the consequences of the former will be devastating.

What is AWOTE?

Why we are a Certified Agreement behind

AWOTE - A measure of the Average Weekly Earnings minus any overtime earnings.

This is the ABS method of comparing wage growth across industries across genders, states and the nation; it accounts for standard shift penalties and extra payments excluding overtime earnings.  As published by the ABS, AWOTE has grown since 2000 to 2007 by 39.28%.  It is predicted by the ABS to rise by 5%  to 08 and then again 5% by 09. If that happens AWOTE will have moved by 53.56%, since 2000.

If our wages had risen at AWOTE since 2000 our current Level 13 wage would now be $148,821 and by next January it would be $156,263; some $21,285 higher than our wage.

Over the life (3 years) of the agreement to catch the community benchmark we need relative growth of 34%.  Please note that we have excluded the $1163 LOLI payment from our calculations as this was an entitlement that has been fully expended, by most.

This difference in AWOTE represents a approximately a 10% sign on then 6 increases of 4%.  Less than this will see us further behind community standards when compared with 2000. 

Will ATC Management convince those with the purse strings to open the bag, just a little? If you get 4% and annual rises of 4% you will be $23000 behind AWOTE your wages will have grown by 39.67% since 2000 in 12 years; which is slightly better than AWOTE growth after 9 years.

They couldn’t possibly claim “industry crisis” or “lack of productivity”, to deny you an obvious pay rise, could they?

Why we endorsed a “NO vote” in 2005.

In our last edition of Certified Shafting, we endorsed a “NO VOTE”; this was not a position taken by Civil Air, who were effectively neutral and Airservices was promoting a “YES VOTE”.

So why did we say to Vote NO, three years ago?

Essentially your employer gave you nothing.  They locked away employment conditions for less than community wages growth.  You achieved through your bargaining one extra hour of work for essentially extra recreation leave.  The hours of extra work equated to more hours than the leave granted across the board.

Your employer failed to concede on any element in the log of claims.

We encourage you to Vote No, because it in our minds was worth at least risking the costs of arbitration to at least ask the hard questions about were we getting what we deserved.

It is pretty clear by Australian standards we did not achieve all that could be achieved.  By world ATC standards we are now amongst the lowest paid when assessed against comparable countries.  This is not to say our negotiators failed us, they merely played the cards available to them given the level of support demonstrated by those covered under the agreement.

We warned of the low rate for AD hours.  We predicted an increase in AD hours as ultimately AD was becoming a more ‘profitable’ option rather than pursuing full staffing.

We predicted record profits being achieved by the employer without ‘real’ profit sharing to you the generators of the profits; locked in at a maximum 1% ‘bonus’.

We warned that FPC status was dead; we didn’t predict the hoop jumping required to progress up the ‘annual increments'.

Welcome

Last time we published our little flyers we got quite a reaction.  We were accused of many things during the last period of negotiating; including deliberately making false statements to undermining both Civil Air and Airservices Australia.  

We understand that we were requested to be  “officially outed” by the members of the Civil Air negotiating team.  We understand that our flyer was submitted as evidence in the AIRC against Civil Air, and our flyer was read in Board Meetings.  We continue to deliberately remain anonymous and people who are sure who we are may be very surprised; you may know one or two of us but we have many fingers typing and researching.

We are humbled and flattered that our little voice would get such a reaction.  Obviously we are able to identify some home truths that are inconvenient.

We state again in volume one 2008, right here, right now, that we are not affiliated to either negotiating party and neither party knows who we are.  As such we reserve the right to remain anonymous and hope that you appreciate the hours that our contributors put in to make our little flyer.  

You can take us seriously or dismiss us, it’s your choice.  It is always our intent to not mislead you our loyal reader, but simply give you facts.

We will always endeavor to produce a relatively balanced view of the argument. There will be times when we make mistakes; and we will make corrections if this happens.  We will not be loose with facts to ‘bolster our argument’.  We don’t believe in “spin” as we are united in our view that the facts will be enough to enable valid commentary. 

Most of you will understand however, that it is our intent to present an argument for improving both conditions and pay of all the air traffic controllers, TGOs, FDCs and other people covered by the agreement as employed by Airservices Australia.

As we now head towards a new period of negotiating we publish our new look flyer and give notice that we are back and will continue our contributions from time to time.

Important dates as we know them:

• 21 April 08, Formal negotiations can commence.
  
• 21 Dec 08, Existing CA and all Facilitative Arrangements expire.
  
• 25 Dec 08, First opportunity to take industrial action within a bargaining period, if initiated.