QUOTE]Whilst I understand that negotiators must have a tough time arguing the case for the ATSA population whilst most of their membership only seem interested in who gets the next break or EG[/QUOTE]
And
So next time, as a member of PCS, you find yourself saying,, "I'm not doing that, it's not not in my job description." Perhaps you should say, " I will do that if you put it in my job description."
Wake up and save yourselves!!!
Im sorry but what World do you live in? I work at an H24 Airport with colocated Approach and Tower. When me and my colleagues are on duty, we are the only ATSA on shift, thats one person to run both upstairs and down. We work permanent nights for no extra UHP, we dont get any EG's because there is no-one to relieve us until the next shift comes in and we get two, half hour breaks per shift, in between Metars. If the weather is poor we are expected to forego our breaks in order to keep reporting the weather. If the weather is fine and I can get a break then I have to take a cordless phone with me so I can continue answering the outside line (the agreement is to hand it to a controller who is spare but of course we have no spare controllers just hanging around.)This usually means I spend about 15 minutes of my break fielding phone calls.
I am a unit investigator, completing CA4118's and CA4119's. I do APSA's. I do day 2 day observations. I am the units stats guru, providing movement and safety data to the BAA, CTC and to my GM to include in his monthly report. I audit the TOI/USI log to make sure all relevant data is correctly displayed and SRG compliant. I am the TRM focal point and later this month I will finally be getting some official training on the Simulator so I can run TRUCE exercises (I've actually been doing this for a while without the official training I asked for . ) All this whilst plugged in trying to do my job as an assistant.
Everything I have mentioned there I do voluntarily. Recently when rumours were circulating that Management were looking to re-grade the ATSA position I went to my GM and asked to have these duties added to my job description. My GM passed on the request to HQ and the reply was a flat out refusal.
Wake up and smell the coffee. Its not about additional duties it is a numbers game pure and simple.
I continue to do these tasks for my own interest and because I actually believe there is a lot of good can come out of them. I still care deeply about the industry we work in. Which brings me back towards the central focus of this forum.
This managements attachment of the string regarding Met duties to the core pay deal and in particular Prospects complicity with this is an absolute disgrace.
Both management and Prospect, via their framework agreement, only mention Metar provision. What about Speci's, you know, when there has been an operationally significant change in the weather that requires a special report? What about Snowtams? Not a mention.
If I can take people back to the 19th December 2010. The night when every major airfield South of Manchester, Glasgow, Prestwick and I believe Aberdeen were shut due to snow. I was the ATSA that night. It was me who received the call putting us on Standby to receive multiple wide body diversions. As heavy snow showers passed through the airfield ( requiring countless Speci's ) Airfield Ops worked their fingers to the bone to keep the airfield open for our own traffic and an anticipated onslaught in the morning. Whilst the controller dealt with the air traffic and a multitude of vehicles all over the airfield, I filled out 7 seperate snowtams, to make sure everyone was kept informed of the latest situation. Each one requiring getting the info from ops, filling out the Snowtam form, disseminating the snowtam by AFTN, working out the MOTNE code, working out the percentage contamination for each runway third, recording the Message for ATIS broadcast and keeping in touch with units and companies with a vested interest. Fortunately by this stage of the winter I was well practised and so managed each Snowtam in about 20-25 minutes. What chance a controller who is trying to deal with Aircraft and vehicles as well. Oh dont worry Prospect have thought about that too. The framework states that a controller can decide whether to give priority to traffic or Met reporting. Talk about Damned if you do, Damned if you dont.
Im not suggesting every nightshift will be that complex but the fact of the matter is when the weather is bad the controller needs to be concentrating on the traffic leaving others to make sure the pilots are getting the most up to date information in a quickly changing picture.
According to the NTSB approximately 22% of accidents have Met as a causal or contributory factor. That is why every accident or incident report has a met report included. God help any controller who finds themselves in the unfortunate position of a major incident where the Met being broadcast is incorrect. You can be sure that, contributory or not, there will be highly paid lawyers searching for any blame they can pass. Will the management pushing this agenda be in the dock? Yeah right.
For 20 years in this Industry my paramount thought has always been the safety of Air traffic. We've had fights over privitisation and pensions that I was disappointed to lose but what really make my blood boil is that I never could have believed that the Union could actually negotiate and recommend acceptance of a procedure that will make Air traffic service provision potentially more dangerous for the providers and users of the service.
One final point to those of you in NERL that think this is not your fight, think again. This agreement is not just for Met it is for Met and residual tasks. It was always considered that no controller should be performing any task that should distract them from the primary task of controlling. That consideration has just been negotiated away by your Union. How long until management find some residual tasks for you to perform?