Relax Staffing Crisis Over

Cameron Creedy - The ORRRRSTRALIAN

39 August 2008

The flying public should now have every confidence that the Orrrrstralian aviation environment will run efficiently from early tomorrow. True to his word the CEO of Airshambles (Grog Rustler) announced today that the alleged ATC staffing crisis had been officially resolved.

"Yes we have had 25 closures / disruptions after August 31, hence the move to extend August just once; because I'd previously committed to no crisis after August."

"Look we had our troubles, we were left in a horrible position by the previous management." Mr Rustler said, "I came to this business, and like any new CEO, had to make my mark, so I reduced the decentralisation of the core activities, this made us much more efficient."  

"The most difficult task we had was convincing the modern world to amend their calendars in a one off adjustment, we were pleasantly surprised with the support we got from the Ministry of funny walks, but now we can officially welcome September with gusto."

Rustler said, "Some people said I just sacked people and made the others we kept work harder, it's not the way it happened, I gave people generous resignation and retirement benefits and diluted those often duplicated duties amongst the remaining workforce."

"Sure it would appear that it was a dud decision, and that's who I'm blaming next." Mr Rustler said. "Hindsight is always wonderful in hindsight, we didn't know that our staff were telling us the truth when they said it was a stupid decision and wouldn't work."

To appease the workers, in 2006-7 Airshambles hired almost 20% more staff than they had previously enabled to explore other options, but these were mostly in clerical roles, which is now running more efficiently than ever.

"We had to take this business in a new direction, we have, now it's completely on course." Mr Rustler said, "Look you have to understand that the future of the business is looking very bright, some may say the only way is up, I don't feel that way, if we play our cards right during contract negotiations we can get much lower than this."

Meanwhile Mr Rickturd Dooright, Airshambles PR chief stated, "Those saying this company is a bad place to work need to realise that it's a big bad world out there, what skills can our employees sell on the open market, they are trapped and we know it and they need to know it too."

"Our staff just complain, but they don't go anywhere, this tells us that deep down, we have them by the balls, or they would have left long ago.  Sure some have jumped off the lifeboat, but look where they are headed, to high cost of living environments, they'll need to double their pay to survive."

"Our intention is to pay market rates, and we own this market so we determine the rate." said Mr Dooright.

Meanwhile the staffing unions that represent the workers, Filtered Air and CUPS, said that the management have got it wrong.

Mr Minsick, a Vice President at Filtered Air, said that "Airshambles was flogging themselves, these Johnny come lately management types aren't realistic, it starts at the top and works it's way down like a very vicious cancer, each stupid idea must be trumped by a stupider idea."

"What we don't see is the Board even appearing to care, at least they could pretend to care" said Mr Minsick, "we expect the controllers to turn on each other, or us their union, before they stand up to the hollow men from the Bullshit Castle."

"Rumours of people leaving in droves are highly over exaggerated." Mr Rustler said today.  "I have fully briefed the minister Mr Lemoneasy, I have his full backing, he understands it's not my fault."

When questioned about 15 trainees employed earlier this month, 4 months prior to their training commecning Mr Rustler simply stated, "I reject the allegations that we are hiding or wasting anything, we had no plans to train everyone at once, we planned to employ 80 trainees this year, we are planning on doing that, we are right on course. At no time did we state we would graduate 80 trainees out of the college this year, hell we didn't even say we'd train 80 people, we are just taking 80 trainees."

"We plan to take 100 trainees next year" Mr Rustler said, "We don't think that anyone expects that it means 100 graduates, or even 100 controllers in training, it means 100 trainees , training or not, and nothing more".

More Press

Air restrictions fly in face of safety claims

Cameron Stewart | August 11, 2008

THE Civil Aviation Safety Authority will restrict the number of passenger jets flying through uncontrolled skies, contradicting the Government's claims that the practice is perfectly safe.

The move is the first tacit admission by authorities that the risk of a mid-air collision in uncontrolled airspace in unacceptably high and that something needs to be done.

CASA has called on the air traffic control manager of Airservices Australia to place new restrictions on airspace when there is no air traffic controller available to monitor that portion of sky.

The move follows a series of articles in The Australian that have disclosed the dangers of uncontrolled airspace, highlighting safety warnings from pilots, air traffic controllers and aviation experts.

A shortage of air traffic controllers has increasingly left large parts of Australian skies uncontrolled, forcing pilots to rely on other pilots to avoid mid-air collisions.

The government-owned ASA has said repeatedly that the practice of flying in uncontrolled airspace, using only radio and visual sightings, is safe. But CASA now wants ASA to declare all uncontrolled airspace a "temporary restricted area" -- meaning no plane can fly in or out of this airspace without approval. This gives authorities a way to limit the number of planes that enter uncontrolled airspace and separate them more precisely before they enter the uncontrolled zone. 

Well they did, we have been told that CASA told ASA to do it this way, the clever folks at ASA have decided that well if CASA want’s us to do this then they (CASA) can administer the airspace; or manage the TRA.  CASA needs to work out who can enter, when, how high, and ‘guarantee’ that clearance into the TRA in which TIBA procedures would be used is as safe if not safer than just TIBA alone.

ASA is but merely a service provider, as such, if unable to provide the service can throw it’s “hands in the air” and say “we’ve done all we can”; “look how hard we tried, we made 10 phone calls”.

Of course, like other infamous interdepartmental stand offs, like NAS, this is about saving face and not admitting that a real problem has been identified; shifting blame (the blame which started with ‘it’s the controllers fault’) to the other agency is now the key.  

CASA should threaten to withdraw the AOC that Airshambles has, because they are unable to fulfill their service obligations.; of course that is ‘politically unacceptable’, because significant proportions of the nations economy will grind to a halt, just like the “PR SPIN” stated when controllers take industrial action; except the withdrawal of the AOC would cripple the nation, not like squeezing a pimple in terms of any controller action.

What is happening is a classic game of bluff, CASA now has withdrawn it’s intention to insist on TRAs within TIBA sectors; because Airshambles has told them to come in and work out what the effects on safety are.  Airshambles are good bluffers and again they have made CASA look silly, despite the problems being firmly in the Airshambles corner.

The argument is that broad blanket TRAs are an unknown quantity in terms of risk; where as TIBA risk is practiced, known and historically acceptable; even if it’s at best a third world practice and unacceptable for a modern aviation environment.

So how will Airshambles subject the new requirements to risk assessment, well they can’t without knowing what the intended procedures are; how will CASA make an assessment on this procedure in isolation, well they just can’t; without knowing the procedures.  

TRAs logically, must be infinitely safer than TIBA alone, but how do you prove it?  What are the procedures to be used, what errors are possible and what mitigations can be implemented to increase safety.   Far too many unknowns, far to many people saying we should do something and no one saying we must; time for leadership Russell and Byron and dare we say it BIG TONY.

Russell doesn’t want amended procedures as it doesn’t look good for him and his 17 short (for 17 more days) workforce.  Byron doesn’t want to impose more un-assessed risk on the public; BIG TONY has been sold a pup and has no idea what is really going on.

If Airshambles were an airline it would be grounded; that would be the safest thing to do.

It means pilots will still be flying blind but with fewer other aircraft in the vicinity and better spacing, reducing the chances of a mid-air collision. 

Well see above commentary, it’s possible that more space will be between them, but perhaps not.

However, the new system could cause delays to those aircraft which are not approved to fly through the uncontrolled zone, adding to costs and inconvenience to passengers.

"We have asked (ASA) to look at TRA as an alternative to (uncontrolled airspace) because it gives a greater ability to be aware of all the traffic in that airspace," said CASA spokesman Peter Gibson.

A spokesman for ASA, Richard Dudley, said the service agreed late last week to CASA's request for uncontrolled airspace in Australia to be designated as TRA.

Both these gents had no qualms in giving out the details when pressured, when considered later after getting kicked in the arse, they both deny any safety enhancement or new procedure was on the table.

CASA has been increasingly frustrated by the air safety implications arising from a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The shortage has come about through mismanagement by ASA, which has failed to recruit enough controllers to offset large numbers of retirements and poaching from overseas. 

Cameron, you speak the truth.  How many trainees of the magic 100 abinitios per year have been recruited to come to work every day to play ‘pool and play-station’; because there is no capacity to train them yet?  The poaching will get worse.  The Middle East is bringing a mojor airport online in 2009; they will need 100+ controllers in that region and they will be ever increasing the tax free offer, currently close to $230K per year, to get staff.

ASA accuses air traffic controllers of contributing to the problem by calling in sick and refusing to work extra shifts in an effort to highlight the shortage and help their forthcoming wage claim. 

The inference is that all the sick leave is fraudulent, if so, who's getting counselling for abusing sick leave? See this great post from Don Brown over at ‘Get the Flick’ for a simple explanation of why they might be saying no.

Last Friday, a massive area of airspace between Brisbane and Cairns was left uncontrolled between midnight and 5.30am after a controller called in sick.

According to an ASA "service interruption" report on the incident, six other controllers declined to cover the sick man's shift while four others were uncontactable.

ASA head Greg Russell has accused a small group of "renegade" controllers of leaving the skies uncontrolled to boost their industrial clout in looming wage negotiations. 

Our read on this is, GREG if you think we need to increase our clout you really are delusional.  When the protected ‘bargaining period’ is initiated, if it gets that far,  then you will see the clout readily available to us; this is not a threat it is reality.  You have spent 18 months beating controllers up, very publicly of late,  now they want a ‘pound of flesh’ for their troubles.  You can eliminate their hunger by making a ‘reasonable offer with a bloody good pay-rise’ in it.

It is in your interest to put at least an offer on the table, which you have still failed to do in 4 months, in an attempt to retain your staff before they sign the contracts and book their flights out.  Give us a hint? 3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, <7%;>

But the air traffic control union, Civil Air, says ASA is looking to deflect blame for its own failings. "Airservices seems bent on shifting the blame to those who have been holding a failing system together, rather than accepting the consequences of its own mismanagement of human resources across an extended period of time," Civil Air president Robert Mason said.

Robert Mason is indeed wise.  We have read elsewhere that a single group of 17 staff have been required to work 34 OT shifts between them in 3 weeks.  2 days each in three weeks.  This is at ‘roster creation’ time, before anyone has become fatigued and or sick; that group is rumoured to be losing 3 more controllers before October.

The Sydney tower alone has lost four controllers through resignation or retirement in the past two weeks.

We seek the TRUTH!

As you know in recent weeks the upcoming battle has become public.

The CEO has been lambasting 'a small group' of controllers as the reasons for all his ills.

He has called them (or at least the sub editors have) various words including, militants, renegades and shirkers.  

In what now is a very public battle, apparently all the TIBA lies at the hand of a small group of employees who originally were refusing to work overtime, but now are also 'spiking' their sick leave.  In other words, taking fraudulent sick leave to cause maximum damage.

But what is the truth?  How much sick leave is actually covered by overtime?  How much overtime is used to cover "HOLES IN ROSTERS"?  Is sick leave on the rise at all? If it is rising, is there a link between working harder when at work and having less days off a month?

We have evidence that some groups have as many as 30 shifts each month, and that is at the roster 'population' stage, that need coverage with overtime.  THAT IS BEFORE ANYONE HAS CALLED IN SICK.

So in that particular group, of the 15 employees they each have to work 2 shifts of overtime each, before anyone calls in sick to cover the core roster.  Not bad for a roster that gives most people 10 days off a month.  The average sick leave across the ATC workforce is unknown.  Recently it was about 12 days a year; much more recently it's been 4 times the national average (36), or three times (27), or three times the national benchmark of 6 (18).  But let guess it's close to 12; or one day a month.  So talking of that particular group, 15 shifts will also need to be covered because of sick leave.  A total of 45 shifts or 3 shifts each.

The expectation is that the overtime will be shared equally.  This is far from reality as we all know that we have different work/life balances.  We can also surmise that as a result of our rostering processes that most of the shifts (at least 30) of them are in the middle of the night; which are the most difficult to cover; who want's to work a night shift in the middle of two days off; it effectively counts against both days off, so you end up with 20 odd hours between shifts, but NO DAYS OFF AT ALL.

So how did it get this bad?

We here at Certified Shafting have concluded that it's not the fault of renegades and militants.  It's totally at the hands of management.

In particular the CEO Greg Russell, who's sycophants implemented the SDE without any consequential thought about whether the idea was good or not.

Long term we can see benefit in the SDE, in terms of keeping jets away from lighties, and changes to airspace classifications in the future in terms of training resources.  But what was the rush?

We have burnt countless good will and inherent efficiencies that the previous structure had built in through years of amendment.  Prior to SDE in late 2007, the sector structure has been effectively unchanged since 1995; with the exception of minor amendments associated with transitioning to TAAATS.  These sectors and rosters had been subjected to significant reforms in that time in terms of roster lines required and (mostly) efficient procedures, refined over that time.

SDE was effectively a clean slate (yeah right).  It was predicated on the myth that standardisation exists, which it doesn't.  It is a flawed concept in that CITY PAIRS were used to determine the airspace design and structures; with pertinent exceptions from the model; leading to significant inefficiency and complications.

SDE split rosters.

SDE split people who had multiple ratings into small groups with isolated roles.

The above group, went from 19 Staff requiring 6 people on any given shift, to 15 on one side needing 5 on a given day and 12 requiring 4 on a given day.  One group of 19 people that used to run efficiently now need 27 staff.  This was done in the name of efficiency. WTF?

It was pointed out by middle management that we shouldn't proceed with SDE on the original time lines. This was rejected by senior management as 'politically unacceptable".

These new groups now required night shift coverage; this group used to have 2 night shift staff; now it has 4.  Is there any wonder that night shift coverage has become an issue?

The extra 8 people didn't suddenly appear.  Most of the holes in rosters were covered by overtime; initially it was accepted with grace; but it was soon clear that the staffing problems were going to exist for a significant period of time, people got sick (quickly) of being called every single day off to come to work, our informant tells us that it was not uncommon to get multiple calls every day.

Then when you were at work, it was likely that you didn't have a full complement of staff on most days; single person duty was (and is) relatively common.  So minimum staffing was three but only one controller was on duty; funnily enough this had a propensity to increase your unavailability to work on subsequent shifts; because you were going home far too knackered.  If you were called on your day off; it was likely that you'd be subjecting yourself to short staffing rostering again too, thus it was not a 'normal shift' you were replacing but a "super shift"; and one you were less likely to accept.

This was not isolated to one group, but every group initially up the ECS line; now we head towards further implementation with RS and UAS groups also making amendments into the SDE environment.

It is not surprising at all to us that SDE has been a significant failure.  It was rushed, it was not resourced properly, it was warped into something unrecognisable from the original intent.  

All resistance to SDE was treated as an industrial issue and objectors were dismissed as 'wankers' who didn't get it.  We are past the point of no return, but how can we get out of this bucket of shit?  And will the solution be for the CEO to blame controllers for not coming to work?

Well now 10 months into SDE, where rosters are still short, we ask was it a good idea?

GREG, was it?  Please respond, we'll leave your comment here unmoderated.

More Bad Press

This is one of the crappiest ‘hack pieces’ any of us have ever seen; speechless!

http://www.theage.com.au/national/renegade-controllers-leave-pilots-flying-blind-air-chief-20080725-3l2x.html?page=-1

'Renegade' controllers leave pilots flying blind: air chief

Tony Wright

July 26, 2008

A GROUP of "renegade" air traffic controllers in Melbourne and Brisbane are deliberately closing air space, leaving pilots to fend for themselves on some of the nation's busiest air routes, according to the head of the agency that manages Australia's skies.

Bullshit Tony, it’s bullshit.  It is a completely insufficient that a single controller calling in sick can result in the closure of airspace.

The chief executive of Airservices Australia, Greg Russell, said it appeared a massive increase in incidents in which air space sectors had suddenly been left with no air traffic control was linked to an industrial campaign for big wage rises.

Greg Russell says a lot of things, he’s obviously starting to believe his own spin.  Controllers don’t need to close airspace to get a big payrise; we are a unique profession, and on the open market have proven our worth, all that closing airspace does is highlight that you can’t organise a beer in a brewery. 

Mr Russell said he did not believe the campaign was authorised by the air traffic controllers' union, Civil Air, and he did not believe most controllers were part of it.

Thank goodness, because if you did, you’d be in the AIRC before we could say “Minister sack this incompetent CEO”.

"I do think there are a small number of renegades who are involved in this activity," he said.

If you really did think it was ‘renegades’ it’s not in your nature to not pursue them or punish them; so why haven’t you, this organisation has form, none of it good.

There were only seven incidents in which control of air space sectors had been interrupted in the 22 months between January 2006 and October 2007, rising to a whopping 135 in the eight months since, he said.

It’s amazing how the stats line up. Are the numbers real?  Or just stolen from the union website which was only just starting to track things then?

The New Management Structure started in earnest September 2007, and the ALMs dropped their ratings about 21 days after that.  Most of these people did lots of overtime, now they can’t do any.

The New SDE airspace/sector structure September 2007?  The numbers were just about right then, your dividing of groups has cause massive inefficiencies, and you know it.

Did your stupid ideas come back to bite you?  We told you SDE was stupid; then and now; it’s still stupid.  Where was/is the business case to justify it? The last person to ask that question, Brian, was sacked for doing so.

AWA ideology was more important than the message. Greg, you and you alone (well not including your sycophant managers) have stuffed our company, go away please.

The union's executive secretary, Peter McGuane, emphatically denied any campaign, accusing Airservices of "desperate spin-doctoring".

"There is an acknowledged shortage of air traffic controllers, there is no campaign and our people are sick of being harassed to work on their days off," Mr McGuane said.

McGuane is right, we are all sick of getting called at home to come to work, sometimes 5 times a day, sometimes if you let it go to the answering machine you get, “you must call us back messages”; it’s harrassment; it does effect our health and crushes our morale.

In many of the incidents, air traffic controllers in Melbourne and Brisbane have suddenly declared themselves sick and when their colleagues have been contacted in an effort to find replacements, no one has been available.

Your missing the point, it’s shift work; you don’t call in sick with 24 hours notice if your last shift was only 10 hours ago?  If you start work at 0600 when do you call in sick, when you wake up feeling like shit, or when you magically wake up to give 6 hours notice?  What business runs without ‘contingency’, one person calling in sick should not cripple the service, it's poor management, fact.

Air traffic controllers won the right to unlimited sick leave in the 1990s and are required to give only two hours' notice of their unavailability to work. The rate of absenteeism among air traffic controllers is an average of more than 15 days a year - about three times the national average.

There is no requirement to give 2 hours notice.  And it would very rarely happen that less notice is given, often much much more; but it can happen.  When did 9 x 3 equal 15?  This is deliberate propoganda, what is the national average for sick leave?  What is the national average sick leave in work places that work rotational, non bidding 24/7/365 shift work?

The federal Minister for Transport, Anthony Albanese, also made plain this week he was convinced the rate of uncontrolled air space was linked to the air traffic controllers' industrial campaign.

"It is a fact that Civil Air, the air traffic control union, is engaged in industrial negotiation at the moment over a wages agreement," Mr Albanese told Brisbane radio 4BC. "At the same time, there appears to be a situation whereby you've had a number of people not turning up for work in order to create a situation which causes some difficulty."

BIG TONY it would appear you have swallowed the SPIN, hook, line and sinker.  Has sick leave gone up? Are there more ‘holes in rosters’ than ever before?  Has the over reliance on ‘overtime’ finally impacting and people have just simply reassessed their ability to keep working 10 on 1 off? We need 'oxygen' we want off the ride.

Many industry figures point to an anonymous blog circulated on the internet last November - just as the incidence of uncontrolled air space shot from one to 21 occurrences in a month - that exhorted air traffic controllers to refuse to relieve colleagues who had reported sick.

The blog said the Government would only react to public pressure and media interest, which would only be gained when airline schedules were disrupted or air space was closed.

We often blog, but we haven’t been here that long?  Are you talking about PPRUNE?

"Turn off your phone; don't answer unknown phone numbers; if you are contacted advise you have a 'family commitment', 'have had a drink', are 'too tired' or simply 'unavailable'," the blog advised.

One individuals response to being constantly harrassed to come to work, clearly a conspiracy.

Mr Russell has refused until now to criticise air traffic controllers or to link their industrial campaign to the spike in uncontrolled sectors.

So why is he doing it now? If it were a handful of people it is not in this organisations nature to not call people on doing wrong?  Is Greg about to sack some?  No that would make it worse. Is Greg trying to shame them?  Is Greg trying to poke the bear with a stick and hope you get a nasty reaction?

However, the controllers' certified industrial agreement expires on December 21 and while their union has not yet made a formal log of claims, it has issued a "vision statement" that calls for pay rises ranging from about 30% to 64%.

Mr Russell said such figures were clearly not realistic when Qantas long-haul pilots had received a 3% rise, private sector wage outcomes were about 3.8% and the public sector was receiving rises of about 4.2%.

There is a balance due, the airline employees have received various bonuses on top of base wages whilst times have been good.  We have lost wages growth compared to AWOTE consistently since 1996; we are due for an above average correction. 

It’s not about what others are getting.  It’s about your value in the ‘global market’.  If a CEO gets $1.5M and an annual increase of 14%, it’s market forces, if controllers claim 32% over 3 years it’s ‘not realistic’.  Well why not?  If we can get that pay and much more by going OS, why should we stay? What makes you Greg, so confident we have no choices?

He also pointed to the cost to airlines, which pay Airservices Australia to manage the skies on behalf of the Federal Government.

Did he point to the Airservices profit from last year (FY06/07), and the BIGGER PROFIT that will be delivered for FY07/08? Did he mention that if the claim were to be paid in full it would represent a significantly less amount than the profit for FY07/08 and translate into less than $1.00 per passenger seat; like it would be paid in full.

Most Australian domestic airlines refuse to fly through uncontrolled air space, meaning that at a time when fuel costs are cutting deeply into profits, the requirement to fly around black areas causes immense financial pain.

No, one airline avoids TIBA, sort of.

A regular passenger jet such as a Boeing 737 flying from Melbourne to Sydney requires an extra two tonnes of aviation fuel to fly around what is known as the Canberra sector if it is closed - a broad area between Canberra and Sydney's southern suburbs. With aviation fuel at $1.90 a litre, this equates to an extra $3800 for the journey.

And what would the daily cost of having one extra FPC controller available per shift?  Are these “facts” real? How many minutes does it take to avoid Canberra Group if it is closed?  5? 10? what is the burn rate for a Boeing 737 86 kg per minute?  430 kg, 860kg of fuel?  Not cheap but not two tonnes either. SPIN!

Many international airlines flying in to Australia from Asia have had no choice but to fly through uncontrolled space because they were already in the air when control closed down.

In one incident last month, the entire northern approach to Australia from Queensland to Darwin was uncontrolled after three air traffic controllers in Brisbane called in sick. Fourteen of their colleagues were called in an effort to find replacements, but all were unavailable or uncontactable. The result was that dozens of airliners carrying thousands of passengers had to rely on pilots advising each other of their positions with no assistance from the ground.

Hazards of teams rostering, communal diseases; flu’s and colds are ‘contageous’; or are you/they suggesting it was an orchestrated event?  Have they been counselled, sacked or even hinted at that they ‘did wrong’, have now we guess, shamed in the paper.

What shift was on offer?  A Night shift?  To cover 3 peoples jobs by yourself, attractive no?

How dare people have a life, no it’s a conspiracy that they all said no to working in the middle of the night “ON THEIR DAY OFF”. Most of them were still expected to work their ‘rostered’ shift the next day too, we’re sure.

Despite claims by the union that the problem was caused by a big shortage of controllers, the figures provided by Airservices Australia show the average number of controllers has not changed significantly over the past three years.

The figures Airservices presented say lots of things, they are just wrong, lies, they are using ‘end state’ numbers, we are a long way from end state; at least two years away.  They are figures calculated with ‘rostering efficiencies’ that they don’t yet have; ‘out of our cold dead hands’.

The union claims the system is 100 controllers short. Mr Russell concedes a shortage of 17, but believes the problem will be overcome within a month.

Where are they coming from?  The mythical magic ATC Fairy bus?  Nobody else leaving this month?  Nobody retiring? Nobody getting the shits working for this pack of lying arseholes?  So what happens if TIBA happens in August and September?  With the right numbers there won't be any right, no, that will be wild cat, renegade, industrial action.

Tony Wright, how much of this article did you write? Did you seek any evidence about ‘facts’?  Did you get them checked by a researcher?  What a disgraceful way of getting your biline on a front page. “F” back to journo school for you. Airservices has a habit of SPINNING, they shop around for gullible journo's, whoops.

Andrew Jaspan, We expect better from you, our favourite broadsheet; what a quality biased hack-job, we are not happy.

Airshambles 1st position – part 2

The primary focus of managing the business is in the area of attendance.  

The inference therefore must be there is a significant problem with attendance.  But what are the facts?  Excluding long term sick-leave (3 months +) the average sick leave in the centres is 11 days per annum, slightly higher in Sydney and much lower in regional towers and the outer TCUs/TWRs. 

This compares to other public service roles and those other roles do not work 24/7/365 shift work.  HARDLY 4 times the national average, Julian, you've been sold a pup!

Is our sick leave too high? Well yes, in some cases there is leave taking which could be inferred as "abuse of leave"; but the problem we have is the way that all ATCs are targeted with the same managerial plan.  Rather than address the individuals that abuse leave entitlements; they sweep everyone into the ‘problem bucket’ and punish us all.  So because we don’t have managers that can sort out staffing issues, we need broad brush policies and practices.  Leaders leading, ha, not likely, fools reacting, yes that’s closer.

Sick Leave cap.

Well you can’t buy what we have now, so can we sell it?  What value would you really place on introducing a cap.  Ask anyone struck down with an immediate issue, such as cancer or a heart attack, how much value they place on sick leave as required.

We have heard some managers say that they could still approve sick leave payments for legitimate issues, inference, current sick leave is not legitimate.

Can you get ‘income protection' as an Air Traffic Controller?  No, is the simple answer, so if you can’t insure yourself against a long term illness and the employer won’t pay you if you get sick, what exactly will we do to protect ourselves, yes the fog is clearing, KEEP SICK LEAVE AS REQUIRED; don't touch it!

What if we conceded to a maximum of 7 days without certificate, with no restriction on leave with certificate?  Yes we'll give you that for $15K each on base pay, seems fair given that we currently run at 30+ days each (well according the J.McGauran) of illegitimate leave, and it would comply the governments Enterprise Bargaining Framework, productivity initiatives for more pay.

Non Operational Duty.

We have higher standards than the general community relating to health and fitness when performing the task of ATC.  We cannot take many readily available over the counter drugs and ‘soldier on’, etc. So what should we do?  

Airshambles seems to believe that ATCs don’t do enough non operational shifts, when they have a head cold, have a migraine, etc, when they have taken codeine, pseudoephedrine or similar drugs.  

Well there are a number of reasons why we avoid non operational work, most come back to management.  What does a non-operational controller do?  Plenty, if you have an admin portfolio or the like, not much if you are simply a ‘tools man’, filing paperwork is not legitimate work for non operational ATCs.  Most ATCs are paid to do operational work only, pity that's not always possible.

Then what shift are you working during your non-operational day at work, as rostered or something else.  Most controllers organise their lives around their shift work, to change your shift at short notice to ‘work non-operational duty’ it may have a significant effect on your outside of work life; the work life balance.  This isn’t always the case, but try telling a manager that you’ll be in for non-operational duty from 10-17 vice your 06-13 shift and you’ll be meet with a WTF response; why?

What if you are fatigued for your 0600 shift.  You could work later in the day after you get sleep, damn that work life balance, already organised things with the accountant/doctor/kids/wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/principal etc. so can’t do that; is it fraudulent leave?  No it’s legitimate as long as you did all you could to reduce your fatigue prior to ‘taking the knock’. If you can do for example an afternoon vice a morning, to manage your illness, in this case, fatigue, will they let you?

So we are sure that more people would attend non-operational duty if there was true flexibility, and a method of assigning something worthy to do on said shifts.  Management is 100% responsible for not developing any value adding non-operational tasks and then they further exacerbate the issue by not allowing some shift flexibility if you can't front for the shift as rostered.  

Of course their concern is that if you can change shifts on a whim, without penalty, why would you ever work a doggo?

Did anyone else notice the line that ‘there is an obligation to work reasonable additional hours’?  Why slip this into the ‘sick leave’ section?

The current rule states:

4.3.1 We expect that you will work a reasonable amount of additional hours if the requirement becomes necessary. You may choose not to work additional hours in circumstances where the working of such hours would result in you working hours which are unreasonable after consideration of:

(a) Any risk to your health and safety;

(b) Your personal circumstances including any family responsibilities;

(c) The needs of the workplace;

(d) The notice given by us and by you of your intention to choose not to work the additional

hours; and

(e) Any other relevant matter.

Consultation:

We think this means Airshambles wants the right to do whatever they want, the consultation clauses make it very inconvenient for us when staff point out that consultation is required as per the agreement.  How many times have they been caught out not consulting; more than they have done it right in the first place.

Part 7:

They want to reduce (clarify/simplify) your entitlements relating to ‘Discipline, Redeployment and Termination of Employment’.  We assume this means that they want to impose more restructures and not be caught out by possible redundancy provisions; like during the ALM debacle; there are still some ATCs waiting AIRC advice about their entitlements.  We also suspect that they want to be able more readily able to sack employees that have disciplinary issues, these existing processes are very restrictive on their ability to be complete arse-holes.

Grievances:

Airshambles obviously doesn’t understand what the current grievance system is.  The paragraph they have written is exactly what the current process is, idiots.

Sustaining Capability (you’re joking right?)

Air Traffic Control is a great place to work and is able to maintain capability within the global marketplace. Oh please!  We have the lowest morale ever, you need to fix it, you need to relax terms and conditions and be less focused on 'fraud' and more focused on the individual.

How about starting with paying global rates and recognising that working 24/7/365 is difficult.  How about not standing people down for every little irrelevant event, how about recognising that our safety culture is primarily a box ticking exercise. How about giving something back? How about tapping someone on the shoulder and saying go home, you've done a good days work?

Airshambles now wants ‘flexibility’ in recleave; but wait they wanted the 18 month rolling plans so they could be better informed about operational training requirements and sustaining capability.  This was a pillar of the Airshambles position in 2002. Well which is it?  Locking in things so you can plan, or needing flexibility cause you can’t organise a beer in a brew house?

Methods of retaining ATCs, SHOW ME THE MONEY JERRY!  Do we smell individual contracts?

Career development, blah blah, how about sticking to something? Management training, how many processes in the last 5 years, leaders leading, cert IVs in frontline management etc.

Less CBT, real training courses, real refresher training, movement between ATC roles, now that’s development, reduce change, INFORMATION OVERLOAD LEADS TO MANAGEMENT ARSE COVERING AND INCREASED RISK!

Career Break scheme options - is that a carrot?  You can’t be trusted, we know that in 5 years time we will still be short and you know it, you can give us all you want when we have full staffing, not in the three years of the next agreement.  Next move on, no wait that’s it.

Airshambles, we here at the shafters are very unimpressed by your first effort, F, go back to your desk do better next time.