Dick Smiths 'Americanisation' to cost 200 Aussie jobs
Sydney Morning herald article
So, Dick Smith, the 'fair dinkum' protector of Aussie jobs, really plans to slash more than 200 jobs in Australia. But of course 200 jobs for a saving of $70million = $350,000 per controller. Either I'm being ripped off by my colleagues or someone's figures are a tad rubbery.
But, according to the powers that be, I have nothing to fear, beacuse the official NAS site
NAS FAQ says:
I’m an Air Traffic Controller – will I lose my job?
The short answer is no. While it is still too early in the project to estimate the impact on sectorisation, the cost-effectiveness of NAS is likely to mean that rate of growth in the number of ATC sectors would be slowed, as opposed to the present number being reduced. This reduction in the rate of growth is due to better allocation of resources under the NAS model. However, this is balanced by the fact that traffic levels should continue to increase over time.
So, whi is telling the truth, Willoughby or Smith?
The full text of the SMH article:
Safety fears lead to rural flights threat
By Brian Robins
June 10 2003
Australia's domestic commercial pilots are prepared to suspend air services into areas where air traffic control is to be downgraded, as they step up their campaign opposing the overhaul of the airspace system.
Stage one of the national airspace system - which could make up to a third of air traffic controllers redundant - has already been implemented. The final stage is due to be completed by mid-next year.
The new system is based on air traffic control practices in the United States. But the system will downgrade the service that air traffic controllers offer to smaller airports, raising air safety concerns.
In a little-noticed move, the federal Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, has released a report into the management of the national airspace system highlighting significant savings that will result from the changes that are under way.
The Willoughby report found that at least 200 of the 642 air traffic controllers would not be needed after the airspace system's overhaul is complete. The reduction in air traffic controllers would save over $70 million a year for the general aviation industry, the report says.
Added responsibility for pilots is central to the new system, as is reducing the extent of air traffic control over lower-level air traffic, such as most non-commercial aviation.
"We know what the consequences are," said Robin Beville-Anderson of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, which represents domestic commercial pilots except Qantas's.
He highlighted the rise in the number of mid-air collisions in Canada after it cut directed traffic information, which is provided by air traffic controllers to aircraft flying between main centres.
"It's not safe," he said. "It's proven to be unsafe. If it was to be the full US system, it would be safe." But it was not the full system: the US has full radar cover, which Australia does not.
In the past, he said, the federation had threatened to disrupt services to areas that were to have had air traffic control downgraded, and it would consider similar action again.
Dick Smith, a member of the Aviation Reform Group, said of the new airspace system: "It's like the telephone system moving from a manual system to an automatic system.
"It involves less unnecessary talking with small planes on the air traffic control frequency."
The reform group is charged with implementing the changes to the aviation control system.
"At the moment there is the tremendous amount of communication on the air traffic frequency which they listen to but don't need to," Mr Smith said.
The latest overhaul is the third time in a decade that the Government has tried to change airspace management.
The most recent attempted change was in the late 1990s with the introduction of class G for handling low-flying traffic. The change was abandoned after a near mid-air collision between a Qantas aircraft and an RAAF plane.
Similarly, an earlier planned overhaul was dumped when domestic commercial pilots threatened to withdraw services from airspace that was to be affected by a downgrade.
The new air traffic control system has already been introduced between Sydney and Melbourne, with the next stage, low-level flying to country areas, now being introduced.
"There will be pressure" on jobs, said Peter McGuane, national secretary of Civil Air, the air traffic controllers union, "but that depends on what type of system will be operated."
A spokesman for Airservices Australia, the government body that manages airspace, said it had raised concerns over the report with the Aviation Reform Group, but he would not comment further.