Dick,
Short answer- Yes.
Bonus driven culture in a safety environment. Controllers have been doing large amounts of O/T for years to ensure the industry is not inconvenienced.
ASA are continually telling us they are working on the problem. Greg Russell started as CEO and went on a self proclaimed 'No BS' tour' in 2005' to listen to our concerns'. He was made aware in no uncertain terms, and given examples of
1. Ageing staff demographic, we needed to start ramping up recruitment 2 years before his arrival and it was imperative we start now.
2. People had been left stagnating on consoles for up to 20 years.
3. People with 20+ years of shiftwork have been putting in applications for Long Service Leave up to 3 years in advance only to have them knocked back due lack of staff.
4. There is no simulator refresher training, controllers are not being regularly put under pressure in the simulator in regards to IFER situations, airspace changes, WX scenarios,etc to test themselves and be examined under extreme circumstances.
This means the time the controller is put in challenging circumstances and found to not be up to scratch is when they are dealling with live traffic. A complete Breakdown of Separation( BOS) review was done in July 2003 (following a near mid-air of two RPT jets around Tamworth) a list of recommendations was done. A post implementation review was done in Dec 2004, most of the recommendations are still on the backburner due staff shortages.
5. Training needed to be ramped up.
6. 'Efficiencies' in rostering, along with institutionalised O/T,were leaving people chronically fatigued
Greg Russells answer. "I will make sure this gets fixed as a priority."
Greg Russells actions.
1. Nothing happened with recruitment.
2.He got a hatchet man into streamline (gut ) the College.
3. He implemented SDE which saw 100 operational controllers out of a staff of less than 900 taken away from the consoles and given 30-100% payrises on AWAs. This is about the time the TIBAs really started happening , about September last year. Our CA negotiations weren't even scheduled to start til April, but Greg Russell would have Joe Public through the media believe it is an industrial campaign. It is mis management.
Greg is now trying to goad the controllers into some drastic action through his comments in the media,frivolous disputes in the AIRC, and actions through the CA 'lack of negotiations' to precipitate controllers to inconvenience the Flying Public.
The place is falling apart as it is.There are 8 known people leaving Brisbane Approach in the next 8 months, out of a roster of around 30. There may be more. The older controllers are bringing retirement dates forward because of the toxic atmosphere, and the younger ones are waiting for their 5 year 'bonds' to expire. People have contracts waiting for their signature for Germany, Ireland, EuroControl, and the Middle East. They are waiting on the CA negotiations, after ASAs efforts this week some people have decided not to wait and are in the process of resigning.
The only way out is for controllers to work even more O/T. Because even the GM ATC has admitted it will take at least 2 years to dig us out of the hole we are now in. I think more like 4 years.
This has come about from a bonus driven short term outlook in management.
Middle management are discouraged from telling it like it is because they are contract/ bonus driven, and that culture has stemmed from the Board and CEO. Don't believe the spin about industrial dispute, the origins of this debacle go back years, Greg Russell could have started us on a road to redemption 3 years ago, but he was brought in for his cost cutting/ restructuring (gutting) ability. Have a look at his record.