Germans Agree New Deal

[250 kts]

Just been on TV that german ATCOs have agreed a new deal in relation to leave. They have gained an increase from 6 weeks/year to 7/year. In addition they get a "stress busting week" eg at a health farm ,for an additional week courtesy of the employers.
Not bad ,eh??

[Jeddi]

Yeah but are they going to accept the offer??????

[ATC Watcher]

This is the first offer from management. And all this with only the Threat of a strike !
The fat lady has not sung yet.

Well done Kamaraden , hope you win more, Good luck !

[Ronald Heyne]

Hi,

I doubt you folks from the island are really interested in the facts ;-) but nevertheless I will give you some more info:

ATC in Germany has been privatised in 1993. Since then there has never been a strike. However, this time we (the controllers) where ready to go on a two-hour strike this morning. It was not about money but about workload this time. Due to bad management we have a still growing lack of controllers while traffic goes up, I´m sure you know that kind of problems. At the same time DFS (German ATC) intended to change our cure (kind of a paid vacation of four weeks we where getting every 4-5 years) into an annual one-week course like "how to live healthier". This has been reversed now, everything will stay as it was.
Another point was the weekly time to work. This has been lowered for most controllers by one hour. The net time now is between 26.5 and 30 hours for most controllers (Tower Frankfurt has the lowest with 25.5 hours). However: Due to the lack of controllers DFS has time until 2004 before this has to be in effect. Until that we get an account where we save these hours.
BTW: Yes, we get 6 weeks of vacation (32 days), but there will not be more (very few exeptions). Only if we really get back our saved hours in 2004 there is a nice vacation ahead and you will find me most of that year in the Caribbean ;-)

Everything cleared up now?

Greetings from Germany

Ronald

[2 six 4]

Sorry to argue Ronald but what do you mean privatised ?

Who actually owns DFS ?

[Ronald Heyne]

Why argue?

Hope I can explain it correct in english because terms might be used different in other countries: DFS is still 100% state owned, but the organisation is not working according to the rules of government organisations (civil servants etc.) anymore. It is now a "GmbH" = limited liability company.
One advantage is that controllers can be paid more now as they don't fall under the scheme used for other state employees.

Ronald

[2 six 4]

The reason to argue is not with you but with all the politicians in Britain and other countries who state what you said. ATC in Germany and Canada has been privatised.

ATC in Britain is just about to be the first country in the world to privatise its ATC system. It is going to be sold to a group of companies who have a first legal liability to their shareholders. It is very likely that ATC in Britain will follow the path that British Airways took on being privatised. Big staff redundancies ( initially in support staff ) increased hours of work, regional pay, reduction in allowances. That is why some of us argue when even knowledgeable people in ATC say their ATC service has been privatised.

For interest the UK Civil Aviation Authority was set up in 1971 and ran ATC in the way you describe until last month.