In light of recent events, Big M has reintoduced a camera policy which will make it nearly impossible for legitimate photo's to be taken.
Refer to Big M's email:
Where an employee wishes to take photographs:
of any part of the workplace, equipment operated by the Company, Company owned aircraft in maintenance or parked awaiting service, third party or other operator owned aircraft in maintenance or parked awaiting service, components or parts of an aircraft, other employees, goods or products related to the business of the Company, documentation used by the Company, regardless of its nature, but specifically aircraft operational records, planning documents, log books, manuals and references, hand over sheets or books, task cards, hand written or computer records;
Where all of the above are considered to be "confidential and secure information" as described by the relevant Qantas Policy Manual references,
That employee is to seek written approval to do so, from his / her Duty Maintenance Manager (as a minimum).
If the employee also wishes to retain those photographs, an extra and specific approval is to be sought.
That Duty Maintenance Manager may then only grant approval where he / she is fully satisfied that the request relates directly to a valid Company related task or activity, AND that the he /she has established that the recipient of those photographs is a Company employee and further that he / she has a verifiable and genuine need for those photographs.
In the case of the employee also requesting approval to retain the photographs, the Duty Maintenance Manager must be satisfied the reason for such retention is valid.
In either case, the Duty Maintenance Manager is also to keep a file housing the photographs taken and sent, for record.
A controlled Qantas Form is to be used to grant approval.
The taking of unapproved photographs (within the meanings set out above), whether forwarded, retained, or stored in the memory of a camera, mobile phone or PDA, or held on film, will be considered as a breach of the Qantas Policy dealing with Confidential Information and Security of Information.[/B]
I'm sure DMM's have got better things to do than vet people's happy snaps around the airport so to stop this annoyance the answer when asked will invariably be NO. Are security now going to ask to see your phone when you enter the base to ensure it doesn't have a camera? All this policy has done is to drive the taking of photo's underground, it won't stop it happening just make it harder.
Possibly the next step is to make it a Cardinal Rule,a sackable offence to take photo's. Who know's whats next: No group meetings, so you can't talk about events, perhaps blinkers so we can only look in one direction
What a friggin balls up Qantas has become. Let's not encourage the capture of lapses or shortcomings of maintenance and learn and improve from it. Let's instead bury it under some bullshit paperwork.
This is by far the most obvious case of David Cox being so embarrassed by the photos put in front of him during that interview with channel seven's Today Tonight.
A typical knee jerk reaction from maintenance management. How stupid do they think the media are. Everyone knows a picture tells a thousand words. Let's not do something about the half arse maintenance that we saw in the pictures Mr. Cox. Let's instead try to prevent any further embarrasing evidence from coming to the light of day.
People's safety is and should be encouraged to be a transparent issue. This policy is anything but that.
I hope engineers continue to take photos of what they consider appropriate regardless of what their manager thinks. I think more than ever now they will need to support their decisions by hard evidence when confronted by the Qantas paper pushers. Words can be twisted, interpreted and manipulated, a photo continues to tell it's own story.
I think Qantas is right on the money to change their logo.
They don't deserve the Kangaroo though....
they should have an Emu with it's head buried in the sand....
Pretty much sums them up as an airline don't you think?
Quick kill the messenger and hang the whistle blowers and threaten any witnesses. That should create a harmonious environment for error free maintenance
PAF, it's about taking photos of illegal repairs to the eel system and confronting the boss of engineering on channel 7. Is this how they do maint in SIAEC Mr Cocks?, are you really confident in their quality?
PAF, the main objective is to document and photograph dodgy maintenance so it can not be so easily manipulated and disputed by the company.
I really couldn't give a rats @rse (no pun intended) about the logo's on the aircraft. And I bet Qantas don't either. They may try to put a comercial spin on the leaked photos, however the bottom line is they don't want to be embarrassed in the media again.
You see they are more concerned with the image of the inept managment. Not the image that engineers are painting for them of a burning aircraft wreck and charred bodies. This will be the eventual outcome if the management continue on the current cost cutting and 'Rationalisation!', to compete with other LCC. They are not and will never be a LCC (well at least I hope not).
there is an easy solution to M's request...... Take any photographs of dodgy maintenance using the company's camera!!!!! All acs bases have a camera for taking pics when requesting EA's etc. It is part of our license responsibility to take these pics and e-mail them to the appropriate engineer to certify the EA.... Where else that e-mail ends up is anyone's guess....... try argue that point 'M'.......
Boeing also have the policy. Does that make them deceitful also? M.P.
Perhaps, have they recently deliberately carried out illegal wiring repairs and certified for work known not to have been carried out on Qantas aircraft? Oh that's right, no they haven't. Hows that for PERSPECTIVE
Are you saying you have knowledge of boeing using staples to manufacture their planes? Or general dodgy manufacturing procedures?
I have no idea why boeing have this policy, I suspect its more of a corporate secrets thing, rather than to prevent the media getting wind of cheap cost cutting maintenance practices.
there is an easy solution to M's request...... Take any photographs of dodgy maintenance using the company's camera!!!!! All acs bases have a camera for taking pics when requesting EA's etc. It is part of our license responsibility to take these pics and e-mail them to the appropriate engineer to certify the EA.... Where else that e-mail ends up is anyone's guess....... try argue that point 'M'.......
Careful there, your email is one of the easiest things for a company to track.
QANTAS ACS Camera Policy.
You have got to be frigging joking
