little thread dift there folks
from
www.crikey.com.au
Rationing the skies
Ben Sandilands writes:
Source: Crikey.com.au (11 August 2008)
So much for "renegade" air traffic controllers causing chaos in the skies.
On Friday at its Melbourne centre AirServices Australia offered ATC officers three hours extra pay per shift at "additional duty" rates just to be rostered in advance as on-call replacements for anyone who reports absent for work, mainly during evenings or over weekends.
In recent days the chief executive officer of AirServices Australia, Greg Russell, has been blaming ‘renegades’ for calling in sick to add pressure to pay negotiations.
Civil Air, the union, has maintained the real problem is Russell’s incompetence in recruiting and training staff during a period of high attrition due to retirements or better job opportunities abroad.
An official summary of that collective negotiation meeting is here for those who want to study a management trying to buy its way out of a human resources crisis of its own making.
At the same time AirServices was forced to agree to CASA demands for a rationing of controlled air space by a procedure for declaring "temporarily restricted areas" when there are insufficient controllers available to man the radar consoles responsible for the safe separation of aircraft between or near major Australian cities.
Under the current stop gap measures both AirServices and CASA had tried to maintain the fiction that international, domestic and private aircraft could be safely left to control their own ‘separation’ in a free-for-all situation that led to angry protests from the airlines.
That fiction is now over, after CASA officers saw first hand how risky the process was, and Qantas, Virgin Blue and the International Civil Aviation Organisation went public with their concerns.
If some tricky details can be ironed out airliners approaching zones where AirServices can’t provide service will have to apply for permission to enter, meaning rationing can be enforced to keep jets very far apart.
The "tricky" part is international air space. Australia has the responsibility to control large areas of Oceanic airspace. Jets that are mid way along very long flights to Australia cannot be denied access to "temporarily" restricted zones without compromising the compulsory fuel reserves they carry for bad weather diversions at their arrival point.
A spokesman for CASA said a starting time for the new ‘temporary’ arrangements cannot be announced unless this problem is overcome.
These two developments should be a wake up call to Treasury if not Infrastructure. AirServices is a substantial profit centre for government.
Now it is proposing money for nothing for staff just to be available for duty, and being compelled to further reduce its air traffic revenues by diverting, or denying access to, the airliners that are its customers.
And in case you missed the embedded link to the official summary (or the crikey site is slow) it contains this little proposal in relation to "reasonable overtime":
1. There is an obligation on air traffic controllers to perform reasonable overtime where operational requirements make it necessary.
2. That obligation entails an expectation that ATCs will be contactable by telephone and if calls are missed, to call back promptly after the call from Airservices has been received. An ATC should only remain uncontactable or unable to respond promptly where there are special reasons for this being so.
3. Subject to paragraphs 4 and 5, ATCs will agree to work an additional shift or hours when requested to do so.
4. If the ATC has already worked an average of one or more additional hours shift per fortnight in the 30 day period preceding the request or no less than an average of 7 additional hours per fortnight in the 30 day period preceding the request, they shall be entitled to decline the request.
5. Further, Airservices will not require an ATC to perform an additional shift or additional hours if Airservices is satisfied that there are substantial and compelling reasons which make it reasonable for them not to be required to do so.
6. If an ATC does not agree to a request to work an additional shift and neither of the conditions mentioned in paragraphs 4 or 5 exist, Airservices shall be entitled to take appropriate disciplinary action in relation to their conduct.
So effectively, they want me to be on call, always contactable, and presumably not travel too great a distance away from work on my supposed days off.
And if I have the temerity to refuse to do an overtime shift, and they don't like my reason for not doing so (eg: " I just want a day off") , they want to be able to PUNISH ME.
how's that for work/life balance?
