For an organisation like Airservices to get so many of its air traffic controllers offside is not very astute in my view.
Now
that is a truism.
It would be fair to say that there is a perceived need to increase productivity or output of ATC; particularly away from the consoles. When in fact we could all better utilise our away from console time; by spending more time at consoles (see * below).
What I have seen in recent years is 1 hour on 1 hour off; this is believed to be very inefficient; why I'm not sure; perhaps the perception is that your only getting 'half value' for the wages paid.
But this is no longer true; I'm often doing 2hrs in 30 (or less) minutes off and back to 2hrs in. Then there are staffing numbers such as doggos (night shifts) or regional towers or 'low workload' TAAATS positions where 3-4-7 hours of solo duty without a break (just an informal dash to the loo) is the norm.
*We could provide more airspace services at times; particularly on positions where 1 in 1 off is available; but how you harness that ability regularly is beyond me. The rosters are so trimmed that 1 in 1 out is rare not normal. 2hrs working busy positions, is brain numbing and you need to have a real conversation, a bathroom break and maybe some food and drink to recuperate; doing all that in 30 mins or less is nigh on impossible.
It is true that some of what Dick says is true that airspace services could be offered at a higher level of service. But simply changing the class of airspace does not address the safety/training/workload issues.
Birdsville, was quoted recently as a location for E services because it's only one RPT that goes there; the workload problem remains with the IFR aircraft that are captured by the airspace in transit; ie overflying or simply crossing the airway; it distracts from the current 'primary' task of providing upper airspace services; it's not as easy as saying there's only one.
Back to the thread, getting away from airspace; ASA has gone out of there way to run the numbers down, despite the rhetoric. There is and has been a corporate belief that we don't get value for our buck employing ATCs; we must increase their productivity. All efforts to 'create' non console duties have failed due to the overarching reliance on the primary task; ie drop everything and get back to the console. This has resulted in nil effective non-operational tasks in the main. Rosters/Instructions/Procedures etc have often been created and amended in break times; but these have not been recognised by the management. Countless people do the oxygen thieving tasks on their breaks; mainly unrecognised
creating the belief that all ATCs hardly work. Look there are some that hardly work, but they are rare.
Low ATC numbers have arisen from the corporate belief that there is 'fat' in the rosters; well we've gutted the pig and found nothing but bones; a malnourished lump in the belly not a thick layer of fat.
We have seen Millions spent on 'efficiency processes' (Rosterman, Microster & Rostima for example); examining/cutting rosters amending minimum coverage hours, squeezing the stone.
But to what end? Where we have actually made coverage cuts; we have seen once "normal staffing" not being able to be achieved when bad weather or unusual circumstances hit; resultant flow on effect is massive industry delays and traffic management to not overload the struggling bodies dealing with the crisis; a crisis which would have been managed in the past by 'normal staffing'.
We have a corporate culture of rostering for 90% (is it even lower now?); that is if we need 5 people nine out of ten days then that is the base roster. Despite the fact that we need 6 people one out of ten; i.e. you can't easily pick the one day. This would be fair enough if you had a good pool of people left to get in on the one out of ten; and you had advance notice of when it's coming; but we all know about the realities.
How do you fix it; well I suggest we all look very seriously about doing non-console tasks; particularly where your not paid or rostered to do them. There is a recognition that we are 36 ATCs short (22 real ones + 14 others). But this is obviously too low to anyone that has to create or work the rosters.
Think of all the tasks that aren't being done; Stream Specialists, non roster line checkers, Head Office staff, Project staff, Training Staff, Group Training specialists, team/training days, refresher training, staff forums etc. We all know that it's bad, and I think we all know it's going to get worse.
There are 300+ ATCs over 50; how long are they going to stay? Many are giving serious thought to altering plans and pulling up stumps early given the current work environment; what if they all did it next week and gave 12 months or less notice? Particularly if the next EBA offer is going to give them less rises than their pension would otherwise move (see USA retirements) Stay at work for less money than in retirement; hmmm let's think about that?
It is apparent to me that there are no short term solutions; but the things that will help is a retention program, an increase in overtime payments, and a large increase in the EBA offer. All of which I don't see happening.
The number one thing that will help increase ATC morale is for Greg Russell to leave; all piss and hot air, nil substance; manipulating/spinning everything. If it's his underlings that have done it then he still needs to go for not owning the outcomes. 2.5 years in the chair and still blaming the previous management, not good enough Greg.
OS recruiting will only raise the numbers short term, because once the global poaching culture is truly established watch the Aussies chase the coin too. Also not sending bad messages back to other countries would help; too bad we've already lost 5 global recruits out of the first 20 recruits; you need to nurture and help, not be your bureaucratic selves, ASA still NFI.