News from germany (6th sept 2011)
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News from germany (6th sept 2011)
""
Here are some news from Germany:
As you all might have heard in the meantime, we are at the end of arbitration. After extremely disappointing and totally frustrating negotiations during the entire summer period, we finally had to declare the failure of the negotiations. Having said that, we called for industrial action - which put us directly in front of the (first) judge - DFS trying to stop our strike with legal means. We ultimately had to go through several court cases and finally won the main verdict - with DFS calling for arbitration instantly.
We are now awaiting the suggestion of the arbitrator for the 07.09. Each party has then the right to think about it till September, 16th. No industrial action possible until then.
There might be (theoretically) a second round of arbitration, but only if both sides agree. No legal steps possible anymore.
Allow me to give you some more insight details of this process - to give you an idea how DFS top management operates in the meantime:
The problem during the very tough negotiations with DFS was: DFS continuously combined their "offers" during the negotiations with the obligation for us to work MUCH more: two hours more per week and MUCH more overtime per year. Currently we are obliged to work 150 hours overtime per year. From 01.01.12 on, this limit goes down to only 80 hours maximum overtime hours, which we had been agreed on already many, many years ago as a "long term deal" with DFS.
Due to "unsatisfactory circumstances" (will need to explain this orally one day), this limit of 80 hours will definitely "kill" our roster in spring 2012, we know that (due to serious lack of personnell at several units, we will have reached this limit already in about May 2012 (!!) and what then? Closing down sectors? Single person operation with severe flow control meaning excesive delay figures?). This was also an improtant issue during arbitratio. DFS insisted over months on 250 (!!) hours mandatory working overtime per year - which is more than TWO MONTHS per year extra!!! They have offered 5,2% salary increase over 29 months (their first offer was for 49 months!!), but ONLY - again - if we work 2h more per week and all the rest, again combining it with more capacity that we shall deliver......calculating inflation into this equation means that we would end up in a MINUS salary, in a deduction of the monthly income of approximately 2,1%! Including a FLEXIBLE part of the salary, depending on every ATCOs performance.....!!
There are some more issues like career opportunities, licensing issues and qualifications problems as well as "misunderstandings" in our salary category scheme intentions. We are also talking about, e.g., about the need of a licence before moving to certain operational office jobs, like airspace design, safety management and for Supervisor. Many, many issues and pretty complex. But DFS always combined all "offers" with the obligation to work more and with extended overtime.
In addition to that we had some demands in the structure of our "grouping agreement", especially that we would like to restrict the influence of non-ops and lawyers on the operational business. Also the functions of the lower management like Chief Operational Supervisor should be written down in the social agreement, including salary and job requirements, since for the time being this function is outside our tarif system. Further on, we would like to make sure that these positions could only be executed by experienced ATCOs following the senority principle, with the senority principle also being applied for the ATSEP and admin career.
As said before, we are now at the end of the arbitration and we are curiously waiting for the suggestion of the arbitrator. He's a law professor from Munich University, will find a brilliant solution to cut this "gordic knot". It will be very, very difficult, since DFS always explained to all of us (and the media) that our negotiation package is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL and they will prove it. Now, "unfortunately" they had to deal with it in detail, since the Labour High Court in Frankfurt has given US, GdF, the full legal prove that it IS legal and alright!! Full success for us!!! So, DFS has already closed many doors, broke many bridges during the previous negotiations (they even said in a publication that "we haven't "negotiated" yet, it was just some kind informal conversations (!!) and we have started a strike already after the FIRST real meeting".....!! This was after EIGHT meetings of clear and obvious negotiations!!). It's all a big mess and we are all very happy when this is over. This year is, by far, the most difficult negotiation ever!!
""
Here are some news from Germany:
As you all might have heard in the meantime, we are at the end of arbitration. After extremely disappointing and totally frustrating negotiations during the entire summer period, we finally had to declare the failure of the negotiations. Having said that, we called for industrial action - which put us directly in front of the (first) judge - DFS trying to stop our strike with legal means. We ultimately had to go through several court cases and finally won the main verdict - with DFS calling for arbitration instantly.
We are now awaiting the suggestion of the arbitrator for the 07.09. Each party has then the right to think about it till September, 16th. No industrial action possible until then.
There might be (theoretically) a second round of arbitration, but only if both sides agree. No legal steps possible anymore.
Allow me to give you some more insight details of this process - to give you an idea how DFS top management operates in the meantime:
The problem during the very tough negotiations with DFS was: DFS continuously combined their "offers" during the negotiations with the obligation for us to work MUCH more: two hours more per week and MUCH more overtime per year. Currently we are obliged to work 150 hours overtime per year. From 01.01.12 on, this limit goes down to only 80 hours maximum overtime hours, which we had been agreed on already many, many years ago as a "long term deal" with DFS.
Due to "unsatisfactory circumstances" (will need to explain this orally one day), this limit of 80 hours will definitely "kill" our roster in spring 2012, we know that (due to serious lack of personnell at several units, we will have reached this limit already in about May 2012 (!!) and what then? Closing down sectors? Single person operation with severe flow control meaning excesive delay figures?). This was also an improtant issue during arbitratio. DFS insisted over months on 250 (!!) hours mandatory working overtime per year - which is more than TWO MONTHS per year extra!!! They have offered 5,2% salary increase over 29 months (their first offer was for 49 months!!), but ONLY - again - if we work 2h more per week and all the rest, again combining it with more capacity that we shall deliver......calculating inflation into this equation means that we would end up in a MINUS salary, in a deduction of the monthly income of approximately 2,1%! Including a FLEXIBLE part of the salary, depending on every ATCOs performance.....!!
There are some more issues like career opportunities, licensing issues and qualifications problems as well as "misunderstandings" in our salary category scheme intentions. We are also talking about, e.g., about the need of a licence before moving to certain operational office jobs, like airspace design, safety management and for Supervisor. Many, many issues and pretty complex. But DFS always combined all "offers" with the obligation to work more and with extended overtime.
In addition to that we had some demands in the structure of our "grouping agreement", especially that we would like to restrict the influence of non-ops and lawyers on the operational business. Also the functions of the lower management like Chief Operational Supervisor should be written down in the social agreement, including salary and job requirements, since for the time being this function is outside our tarif system. Further on, we would like to make sure that these positions could only be executed by experienced ATCOs following the senority principle, with the senority principle also being applied for the ATSEP and admin career.
As said before, we are now at the end of the arbitration and we are curiously waiting for the suggestion of the arbitrator. He's a law professor from Munich University, will find a brilliant solution to cut this "gordic knot". It will be very, very difficult, since DFS always explained to all of us (and the media) that our negotiation package is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL and they will prove it. Now, "unfortunately" they had to deal with it in detail, since the Labour High Court in Frankfurt has given US, GdF, the full legal prove that it IS legal and alright!! Full success for us!!! So, DFS has already closed many doors, broke many bridges during the previous negotiations (they even said in a publication that "we haven't "negotiated" yet, it was just some kind informal conversations (!!) and we have started a strike already after the FIRST real meeting".....!! This was after EIGHT meetings of clear and obvious negotiations!!). It's all a big mess and we are all very happy when this is over. This year is, by far, the most difficult negotiation ever!!
""
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This year is, by far, the most difficult negotiation ever!!
A spanish ATCO.
PS.- How long will it take us to realize that we MUST UNITE? European attack imply european response.
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|The Spanish and German situation are totally different in nature in the details .Also, unlike what happenned in Spain, in Germany the public and the serious media are not backing up the DFS.
The common denominators however are about reducing the bargaining power of Union and reducing costs ( e.g increasing productivity ( more hours) , and reducing benefits/ salaries in the short term )
I tend to believe this is now a clear CANSO Strategy, so we are probably going to see more of those in the near future..
The common denominators however are about reducing the bargaining power of Union and reducing costs ( e.g increasing productivity ( more hours) , and reducing benefits/ salaries in the short term )
I tend to believe this is now a clear CANSO Strategy, so we are probably going to see more of those in the near future..
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Originally Posted by chemi
All the EU countries taking Spain as an example??We are definitely driving crazy!!
Eurocontrol PRR 2010
The five largest States plan to decrease en-route unit costs between 2009 and 2014. The initiatives taken in France and in Spain to address performance issues show that cost-effectiveness improvements could be achievable when there is a strong political and managerial commitment.
MUAC and NATS could be next targets...
I agree Spanish, German and French controllers don't face exactly the same pressure, in the detail, but the aim seems to be the same from our managements : improve what they call "performance", aka "cost-effectiveness".
It seems CANSO, EUROCONTROL and AO's lobbies consider safety as granted. And I'm afraid they consider that, whatever the pressure they put on us, we will be able to remain safe because we've got no choice.
I hope they will understand we've got limits too, before it's too late.
Last edited by BrATCO; 9th Sep 2011 at 22:29.
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MUAC and NATS could be next targets...
MUAC has always been hanging by a silken thread. The energy expended by some of my ex-colleagues in the battle against lies put about by a number of national administrations was, and remains, phenomenal.
Back in the day rumours were rife concerning a take-over by the DFS, again not much changes.
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Originally Posted by ATC Watcher
The Spanish and German situation are totally different in nature in the details .Also, unlike what happenned in Spain, in Germany the public and the serious media are not backing up the DFS.
Spanish colective agreement was struck down by a royal decree-law and later by a law after about six month of slandering on the mass media. In spanish legal framework laws rank higher than colective agreements so... bad luck. In theory our constitution grants the rights to colective bargain but our complaint never reached the constitutional tribunal... a lower instance decided there was no reason for it.
After increasing our workload from 1200 to 1670 hours and reducing the percentage of rest time while at the same time firing a significant part of our ACC and TACC personnel (all above 57 years old) our government realized that the maths had been wrong and that by their own regulations there wasn't enough staff to do the work.
Since this is Spain, the solution was an easy one... issue a "clarification" on the regulation so that the amount of time is extended.
Sorry, it seems I got a bit carried away. Back to the point, while there are some notorious differences (mainly the judges seem to have more interest in upholding the law and not their own personal career prospects. Also a positive side-note your mass media seem to have a bit of professional ethos) in both cases, I can not stress enough the need to have a very detailed look at the spanish scenario.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
As to what Sonnendec said, a heavy-handed action against german Atcos should be answered with industrial action across europe. We work under different providers yet several international organizations define our work (Canso for example).
Personaly I'm sceptical that we will find that much in common as a specific work branch... maybe when there is not much left to save
British Airways has been advised of possible disruption on Monday 10 October. This is due to employee meetings with trade unions at many major German airports.
So any news? Seems like coordinated bad times coming to an ANSP near you....
So any news? Seems like coordinated bad times coming to an ANSP near you....
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No details yet.
5,2% increase over 17 months, but this has not been an issue anymore (after DFS started negotiations "offering" a pay freeze, even a reduction for most controllers).
I think our union did an OUTSTANDING job!
Main issue was the unionīs demanding operational experience for positions like supervisors and lower management positions that are responsible for ATC operations...strange that you have to fight for this at all.
Iīm curious to learn what REALLY happened during the negotiations. I was disgusted about the top level managementīs behaviour towards their employees during the conflict. Everyone found a letter at home in which they essentially threatened everyone with sacking....not so nice, I would say!
My impression is that the bulk of the operational workforce has completely lost its faith in our directors. I would like them to be replaced sooner rather than later.
5,2% increase over 17 months, but this has not been an issue anymore (after DFS started negotiations "offering" a pay freeze, even a reduction for most controllers).
I think our union did an OUTSTANDING job!
Main issue was the unionīs demanding operational experience for positions like supervisors and lower management positions that are responsible for ATC operations...strange that you have to fight for this at all.
Iīm curious to learn what REALLY happened during the negotiations. I was disgusted about the top level managementīs behaviour towards their employees during the conflict. Everyone found a letter at home in which they essentially threatened everyone with sacking....not so nice, I would say!
My impression is that the bulk of the operational workforce has completely lost its faith in our directors. I would like them to be replaced sooner rather than later.
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They all want to sack us... we are evil... and we perfectly know that...
And we are still staying by their side to help their job going right... when shall we take the decision to free us definitely, and rule the job just for all of us ?
And we are still staying by their side to help their job going right... when shall we take the decision to free us definitely, and rule the job just for all of us ?
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Do they still hiring experienced ATCO's? Cause if you look on dfs page,there is no more advert as it used to be,and actually there is no section "career" in english version of the site.
