Controller shortage????
A controller shortage. Hang on! How come several Sydney controllers recently received VR. Who got that wrong? There was a part of Airservices known as People and Change. Are they still running the show? From what I hear from ATC staff the decisions, or lack of them, coming from that unit are fine examples of ineptitude and stupidity. It's sad that a good system which worked has been interfered with to the extent that the staff have become completley disillusioned. Back in the late 90s I think it was a UK consultancy firm had a good look at the ATC side of Airservices and identified virtually all of the issues which have subsequently come to pass. Streaming - that is allocating a controller to a particular stream, as in Tower, TMA, or en-route, for the rest of his or her career was identified as a bad move but Airservices persisted until it was demonstrated that no one liked it and it was detrimental to good operational practice. There were some significant issues which needed to be fixed but which were simply not addressed. Australian Aviation reports that in 2007 900 ATCs took 15,700 sick days, an average of about 17 days sick leave each. How many years has that level of sick leave been going on and what did Airservices do about it? The staffing problems of an ageing workforce are not something which has suddenly arisen. There will not be a quick fix to the current problems.