Not sure how many of you read Ben Sandilands & Plane Talking, but he has shared his view on the Atkins email here:
Air traffic control shambles at Sydney made public in memo | Plane Talking
I am most impressed with a comment made to his blog by someone claiming they used to be an ATC Line Manager. It is a fabulously honest insight into the reality of what is happening within this organisation. I hope that Greg Atkins gets to read it.....
I have reproduced it here without permission but it is published on Plane Talking:
Ben – I used to be an ATC manager, 50 control tower staff in all, and I seem to recall this time of the year was always bad for absenteeism due seasonal flu and the like.
As was the practice at the time, I kept all of my endorsements current. As the day working manager I could fill gaps or even full shifts if necessary. I was if you like a spare controller. The last CEO allowed what are now called ATC Line Managers to keep only a token endorsement which removed at one stroke probably 8 – 10% of the available controllers.
The prime problem though is not that controllers are unable to work but that there is no-one to replace them. Most businesses get by if an employee does not come to work and the employee catches up when he/she returns. ATC is not like that. It is a high stress,24/7 shift working environment where the ATC gets four days off per fortnight. (And only one 2-day break in six will be a weekend) Well everyone else gets 4 days off you say but how many times do non-ATCs get asked to work on their days off? (Always week ends when all their friends are also off)
This, by the way, is not overtime as the world knows it, putting in an extra few hours to get a job done, this is five to seven hours sometime longer, on your day off. You have to cancel the day out with the family, cancel the golf game, say sorry you can’t attend the party, lose touch with your friends. (These are rarely other ATCs because they are at work when you are on days off!) So now you are down to three days off in the fortnight. Naturally you are not expected to give up yet another day? Wrong! The only thing that will save you is an industrial agreement that states that ATCs cannot work more than ten day in a row without a day off. That’s right it is not a CASA reg like flight time for pilots and flight attendants, it’s an industrial agreement and the only recourse you have is to Fair Work Australia, CASA seems to take little interest.
Another issue hidden from the public when controller shifts are discussed is the fatigue management system. This under the last CEO morphed from an apparently benign attempt to help shift workers assess their ability to present for work to a system that demands answers if you fail to accept an order to return to work.
Ben – you know I don’t get involved in Airservices issues on your blog because I post under my real name and prefer to work inside the organisation to effect change, but on this one I feel that the public does not get the full story.
I sincerely hope that our new CEO will breathe some fresh air into management / controller relationships so the controllers become once again a proud part of the organisation, instead of just a cost centre.