Originally Posted by
PPRuNe Radar
If the hours need to be put in to get something done, and are excessive, then there are several possible explanations. For example ..
There is not enough resource, but then again there's no pressure on NATS to provide it since they seem to have people who will work for free overtime anyway.
Where do you find this resource, which has to have a particular, very specialised skill set at short notice?
The person doing the job is not up to it and has fallen behind or underestimated the task (or maybe their manager has).
Underestimation is often a large part of the problem. Its often impossible to know how difficult and how long something will be to undertake unless you've done exactly the same thing before. Its not unusual to hit unforeseen snags, so estimating hours is extremely difficult.
The pride and professionalism to get a job done is laudable .... but it should never compromise the need for NATS to provide sufficient staff, who work legal contracted hours, and are suitably rewarded.
I agree but the specialised staff required don't exist. We cannot just magic them up. Think along the lines of ATCO training. Also most management grades don't qualify for overtime payments, have a look at the staff manual.
Maybe the whistle should be blown on the NATS managers and individual staff who flout and break European law on working times ?? Anything over 48 hours (including overtime) in a given 7 day period is illegal.
Perhaps the Health and Safety Executive should audit NATS NIBS records, having been tipped the nod
The records would show, assuming people are booking their time properly. In my experience managers are very aware of their duty of care to staff. However as I said before you may think you have ample resource for the job but suddenly hit a snag, bringing an extra help is impossible at short notice and the job MUST be done on time or you hit the soft issues I mentioned in an earlier post.
Rock, hard place.
BD