Civil Air Submission to the Green/White paper 27 June 2008.
The lack of adequate staff is a business continuity risk that is starting to have an impact on Airservices Australia’s operations, resulting in controlled airspace service degradation or closures in both the major centres and regional approach and tower services. We have seen an over reliance on overtime and multiple airspace closures in recent months, all directly related to the lack of available qualified staff.
The provision of adequate staff (in both number and qualification), is a management responsibility. Breaks in service caused by low staff levels are also a management responsibility and not the fault of already overworked controllers who do not attend work on a day they are rostered off duty to prop up an under resourced and failing system.
Just saying!