Morning Ireland
I disagree with Lk's remarks about having a voluntary call in scheme which has worked very satisfactorily up until now. It has worked satisfactorily from an IAA managements point of view because it has cost them alot less to make up for staff shortages, with Call ins ,than the hiring of controllers. The Iaa hired SCP6 back in 2001,, then tried to sack them all in 2003, because of some genie in the lamp prediction, that there wasn't going to be enough work for them.'' NUTS!'' The controllers of SCP6 then spent a whole year fighting the IAA in the courts trying to get re-hired. Thankfully , they won.
Understaffing is also evident in the amount of hours and air traffic that controllers are being coerced into working before getting their required fatigue breaks. Controllers are regulary working upto 3 hours on busy sectors before being provided with fatigue breaks . When controllers complain about being in postion for more than 2 hours, , they are often afforded a break, grudgingly, and made to feel undeserving and a nuisance. . When they file a complaint by way of safety suggestion form they are shunned by their watch managers who won't even sign them, which I might add ,is the instruction given to them by their operations manager. One controller was summoned to the ops managers office for filing a safety suggestion form( note not an MOR mandatory occurrence report) for having exceeded sector capacity. There, he was verbally attacked and had his competency called into question. That is absolutely disgraceful, but indicative of the working conditions and unnecessary pressure that the controllers employed by the IAA have to endure.
Mr LK also indicated that the IAA were recruiting by way of direct hires. That process was initiated 12 months ago and to this day. DIRECT ENTRY CONTROLLERS have NOT commenced training , nevermind,operations ,at any of the three airports or centres. Mr LK also says '' a number of direct entry controllers''. why has he not put a finite or even ball park figure on numbers of direct entries because they can't get them . Mr LK there is a worldwide shortage of air traffic controllers because numbskull Air Traffic Mismanagers , like yours truly have allowed filthy money making sully the waters safety. Lk also says that this current dispute was unnecessary and avoidable. NEVER A TRUER WORD SPOKEN.
At The End o' de day, all credit toooo GOB****ES.