I disagree, Ferris. Don't fall into the Airservices trap of thinking that sick leave is YOUR fault. Sick leave occurs in EVERY SINGLE industry around Australia and the rest of the world including air traffic management. Air traffic controllers' sick leave has remained ostensibly unchanged for over a decade. If anything it has dropped a little in the last year. Almost every company has strategies in place to allow for unplanned absence. Generally they employ surplus staff to cover it. Earlier in the year Brett Godfrey stated publicly that that is what airlines including Virgin Blue do and criticised Airservices for not doing precisely this. As long as Airservices have you believing that their own planning shortcomings are your fault, you cannot win.
Adamastor,
I agree partly with your comments, in that yes, every industry has unplanned staff abscences due to illness. However, I think in this instance it is important to play the "nice guy/girl" and show that we will be willing to do overtime to cover "unplanned" roster issues. It shows that we are willing to do "reasonable" overtime.
If AsA were fully staffed then the OT that we did to cover illnesses would in fact be of a "reasonable" nature.
I think this way it would show that as a collective group of controllers we are happy to be reasonable whilst showing the Australian public just how short we are.
Maybe some sectors would cope better than others but I think it would prove a point. If it were over a key period such as when parliament resumes next year, not only would it prove a point but it would do so to the people that make TFN accountable (apparently).
Again, just a thought.