Merged: ASA Staff Shortage
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Look likes someones chooks are coming home to roost.
I appreciate that Civilair wrote the above, but it looks like the general media are finally realising that TFN has been 'BS'ing them.
"Hell hath no fury like a media duped"
I appreciate that Civilair wrote the above, but it looks like the general media are finally realising that TFN has been 'BS'ing them.
"Hell hath no fury like a media duped"
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Once again, fairly interesting stuff. But does anyone have to take responsibility for this state of affairs? You guys can't (allegedly) service the airspace. Your CEO (allegedly) promised a solution. Is this going to happen?
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Plans
"All current courses are running according to the planned schedule."
Airservices said it had a rotation plan that allowed instructors to swap between the academy and the country's control centres.
It's wonderful that developing plans is an effective mitigator to actually doing anything. I wonder what would happen if the workers adopted the lead shown by "management", and began separating by plan? Or planning when they will attend work, rather than attending....this sounds like fun!!
The new Airservices business motto: If you can't do something- plan it!
it makes the media happy
Just Because....
Wow,
Maybe the media has finally cracked on to realising that just because its in a glossy brochure does not mean its really happening....
What could be next....OHHHHH a realisation that AsA's reals core business is not brochure publishing!!!
PS Can somebody tell the board??
Maybe the media has finally cracked on to realising that just because its in a glossy brochure does not mean its really happening....
What could be next....OHHHHH a realisation that AsA's reals core business is not brochure publishing!!!
PS Can somebody tell the board??
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and this was in the courier mail today as well:
Air force in bid to stop staff exodus
Cameron Stewart | August 26, 2008
THE air force does not have enough air traffic controllers to monitor all its planes and has pleaded with staff not to quit for better-paid civilian jobs.
RAAF chief Air Marshal Mark Binskin has written to his 237 air traffic controllers urging that they not feel "pressured hastily" into resigning, promising them more money and "aggressive" action to improve their conditions.
The move is aimed at stemming a recent spate of resignations among RAAF controllers, many of whom have joined the civil air traffic control manager Airservices Australia, which is also desperately short of qualified controllers.
An Airservices spokesman said it had offered jobs to 14 RAAF controllers so far this year and the air force admitted it was now suffering an 8.1per cent shortfall of military controllers.
As a result, the RAAF conceded that it could no longer adequately monitor all of its military flights around defence airfields.
"Individual air traffic control officer shortages at some Australian Defence Force bases at times have resulted in restrictions to air traffic services to military aircraft," a defence spokesman said.
Defence has its own network of air traffic controllers which - apart from several exceptions - is separate to the civil network of controllers.
Defence controllers are distributed across 11 ADF bases including at Townsville, Amberley, Williamtown, Darwin, Nowra and Tindal.
But concerns about the growing shortage of RAAF controllers prompted Air Marshal Binskin to write an impassioned plea to them this month to remain with the military.
"Do not allow yourself to be pressured hastily into taking positions outside of air force that are likely to be available for many years to come," he wrote in a letter dated August 7 and obtained by The Australian.
"I recognise the competitive external environment and have directed the investigation of targeted remuneration options in the short term."
Air Marshal Binskin said he had ordered "aggressive" action, including contracting specialist industrial advisers to look at improvements in conditions.
"While I acknowledge that some of you may choose to leave the air force to pursue other opportunities, I urge you to look closely at the value package which air force provides before electing to do so," Air Marshal Binskin writes.
"I also urge you to look closely at the culture, environment and current working practices that are evident in outside employment and analyse closely the opportunities available in defence by comparison."
His comments are a thinly veiled swipe at Airservices, which has been involved in a public dispute with its 800 civilian controllers, who have accused the agency of failing to properly manage staffing levels.
Defence says it currently has 212 RAAF and 25 defence department air traffic controllers, an 8.1per cent shortfall on its target workforce of 223 RAAF and 35 defence controllers.
A defence spokesman declined to say how much extra money would be offered to military controllers to help attract and retain them.
At present, newly qualified RAAF controllers receive a salary and allowance of almost $60,000, compared with about $72,000 for a similarly qualified civilian controller.
A national shortage of air traffic controllers has left large slabs of the skies unmonitored for hours at a time this year.
so now it'll be even harder for AsA to poach from the military - lucky we are "only 17 short" hey?
Air force in bid to stop staff exodus
Cameron Stewart | August 26, 2008
THE air force does not have enough air traffic controllers to monitor all its planes and has pleaded with staff not to quit for better-paid civilian jobs.
RAAF chief Air Marshal Mark Binskin has written to his 237 air traffic controllers urging that they not feel "pressured hastily" into resigning, promising them more money and "aggressive" action to improve their conditions.
The move is aimed at stemming a recent spate of resignations among RAAF controllers, many of whom have joined the civil air traffic control manager Airservices Australia, which is also desperately short of qualified controllers.
An Airservices spokesman said it had offered jobs to 14 RAAF controllers so far this year and the air force admitted it was now suffering an 8.1per cent shortfall of military controllers.
As a result, the RAAF conceded that it could no longer adequately monitor all of its military flights around defence airfields.
"Individual air traffic control officer shortages at some Australian Defence Force bases at times have resulted in restrictions to air traffic services to military aircraft," a defence spokesman said.
Defence has its own network of air traffic controllers which - apart from several exceptions - is separate to the civil network of controllers.
Defence controllers are distributed across 11 ADF bases including at Townsville, Amberley, Williamtown, Darwin, Nowra and Tindal.
But concerns about the growing shortage of RAAF controllers prompted Air Marshal Binskin to write an impassioned plea to them this month to remain with the military.
"Do not allow yourself to be pressured hastily into taking positions outside of air force that are likely to be available for many years to come," he wrote in a letter dated August 7 and obtained by The Australian.
"I recognise the competitive external environment and have directed the investigation of targeted remuneration options in the short term."
Air Marshal Binskin said he had ordered "aggressive" action, including contracting specialist industrial advisers to look at improvements in conditions.
"While I acknowledge that some of you may choose to leave the air force to pursue other opportunities, I urge you to look closely at the value package which air force provides before electing to do so," Air Marshal Binskin writes.
"I also urge you to look closely at the culture, environment and current working practices that are evident in outside employment and analyse closely the opportunities available in defence by comparison."
His comments are a thinly veiled swipe at Airservices, which has been involved in a public dispute with its 800 civilian controllers, who have accused the agency of failing to properly manage staffing levels.
Defence says it currently has 212 RAAF and 25 defence department air traffic controllers, an 8.1per cent shortfall on its target workforce of 223 RAAF and 35 defence controllers.
A defence spokesman declined to say how much extra money would be offered to military controllers to help attract and retain them.
At present, newly qualified RAAF controllers receive a salary and allowance of almost $60,000, compared with about $72,000 for a similarly qualified civilian controller.
A national shortage of air traffic controllers has left large slabs of the skies unmonitored for hours at a time this year.
so now it'll be even harder for AsA to poach from the military - lucky we are "only 17 short" hey?
Interesting snippet from the rumour section of crikey.com.au today:
There is much trepidation within the walls of the Alan Woods building in Canberra this week, as Airservices Australia employees ponder who is set to be appointed to replace the troubled CEO Greg Russell. Following on from the unsurprising announcement that CASA CEO Bruce Byron will not contend his position next year, there is little surprise, within what is colloquially known as "bullsh-t castle", that Russell will be leaving to "spend more time with his family". Russell had little choice in reality -- his main charter to the government was to provide an adequate and safe Air Traffic Control service. Despite spirited attempts at shifting the blame of failure to his own staff with some savage assaults in the media, the Air Traffic Services in Australia have become third world.
With little prospect of recovery for some years thanks to countless reorganisations, and a decimation of training resources under the stewardship of Russell and his senior management, the focus came back squarely on the dysfunctional management of the organisation. Several high level scalps have already gone over the past 18 months and nervousness is now quite noticeable in the corner offices as CV's are dusted off. It seems there are few now willing to be associated with the senior managements vision. Anthony Albanaese is apparently not impressed either at being led astray -- there are some serious questions as to the "accuracy" of replies given in the previous Senate Estimates -- and rumours of a complete outsider to replace Russell have tongues wagging. Whoever it is will have a tough job ahead of them. Building back the respect and trust of their workforce is going to take years in itself, assuming any of the highly skilled operational staff bother staying at all.
With little prospect of recovery for some years thanks to countless reorganisations, and a decimation of training resources under the stewardship of Russell and his senior management, the focus came back squarely on the dysfunctional management of the organisation. Several high level scalps have already gone over the past 18 months and nervousness is now quite noticeable in the corner offices as CV's are dusted off. It seems there are few now willing to be associated with the senior managements vision. Anthony Albanaese is apparently not impressed either at being led astray -- there are some serious questions as to the "accuracy" of replies given in the previous Senate Estimates -- and rumours of a complete outsider to replace Russell have tongues wagging. Whoever it is will have a tough job ahead of them. Building back the respect and trust of their workforce is going to take years in itself, assuming any of the highly skilled operational staff bother staying at all.
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Magnificent, the truth is finally out
About time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But alas a little late, I hear the German and Irish interviewers have been very busy on their current headhunting mission.
The federal minister better had get his act together for I can feel an exedus coming on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
F**k off TFN
BgTFN
But alas a little late, I hear the German and Irish interviewers have been very busy on their current headhunting mission.
The federal minister better had get his act together for I can feel an exedus coming on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
F**k off TFN
BgTFN
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a little history that may be pertinent to our staffing problem(s) at the academy
from the budget estimates senate hearing in MAY 2006 (p.103 onwards), available at:
http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/...ked/4719-8.PDF
(the emphasis is my own, but otherwise a straight cut & paste)
Senator O’BRIEN Can you provide us with an outline of the major restructure announced on 1 March 2006?
Mr Russell I came to this organisation in July last year. We made the announcement on the initial part working our way through that process in the meantime. We expect to have the restructure complete by June.
Senator O’BRIEN
from the budget estimates senate hearing in MAY 2006 (p.103 onwards), available at:
http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/...ked/4719-8.PDF
(the emphasis is my own, but otherwise a straight cut & paste)
Senator O’BRIEN Can you provide us with an outline of the major restructure announced on 1 March 2006?
Mr Russell I came to this organisation in July last year. We made the announcement on the initial part working our way through that process in the meantime. We expect to have the restructure complete by June.
Senator O’BRIEN
How many staff have lost their jobs so far?
Mr Russell So far there are 58 staff who have left the organisation. About half of them are the result of voluntary redundancies. The total program, from commencement until the end of June next year, will see approximately 325 staff leave the business during that period.
They have come from areas where, as we have restructured the business and put together our human resource functions, our finance functions and some of our training areas, there is duplication in the first instance.
secondly:
Senator O’BRIEN With the restructuring of the group responsible for air traffic control training, who will now be responsible for training and where is it envisaged that these resources will be drawn from?
Mr Russell We intend to develop the training function within the organisation. We have had in place an ATC training college based at our facility in Melbourne and the college has, in our view, been in need of some restructuring with a view to making it more effective. As an indication, the amount of money that the organisation spends every year on training is in the order of $30 million, $26 million of which is largely spent on air traffic control operations training and fire service training. We think we can get better value for that money.
Our aim is to introduce some new technology into the training process and it goes to issues such as voice recognition in the training process and capital expenditure—we intend to put a new 360-degree tower simulator into the Melbourne facility; we have not had one so far. The plan is to make that organisation, I think, more cost-effective, effective and competitive so that we can sell those services to the overseas markets. There is a lot of demand for Australia’s expertise in this area. If we can get it priced appropriately, I believe there is, in conjunction with some Australian universities, potentially a good revenue stream there.
and lastly:
Senator O’BRIEN You may have told me this earlier but I did not pick it up: the 325 staff to go obviously means there are a number of iterations of the restructuring. What is the next phase?
Mr Russell We have worked through the top-level management of the business. That started with the appointment of a new general manager structure, then the people that report to those general managers, and so on. We are into finalising the fourth level of that structure, so we will fundamentally have the management team completed by the end of June. As part of the process, we conducted a voluntary redundancy program. As I mentioned, about half of the 58 people who have left us so far have come from that area. The remainder of the total number of 325 will largely come from work in our finance area.
We are looking at outsourcing some functions and a reorganisation of the training area. At this point, the 325 does not include any outcomes from the review of air traffic control. We just do not have a feel for what that review means at the moment.
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There is no training plan.
It has been asked repeatedly for the training plan to be published, so those involved at the centres can assess their requirements.
The ALMs ( front line managers) have not been told when the trainees will be arriving and are not rostering for it. No Level 3 manager ( the ones who are supposed to be given the big picture from upper management) has yet published their training plan even though they were supposed to be disseminated by the end of June.
Here we are nearly nine months into a 24 month ramp up of training and no-one knows what is going on.
The latest course is twiddling its thumbs in the ' Learning Academy' awaiting instructors.
This stuff-up will take years to fix. Unfortunately everytime the Association points out a looming problem to ASA bureaucrats they stick their fingers in their ears and cry "Industrial issues". The bureaucrats refuse to listen to their Level 3s and ALMs and controllers. I have also heard that TFN now doesn't want to listen to the GM ATC. He has hung his hat on his 'chosen ones' and will continue down this path regardless.
Did someone say "Iceberg"?
It has been asked repeatedly for the training plan to be published, so those involved at the centres can assess their requirements.
The ALMs ( front line managers) have not been told when the trainees will be arriving and are not rostering for it. No Level 3 manager ( the ones who are supposed to be given the big picture from upper management) has yet published their training plan even though they were supposed to be disseminated by the end of June.
Here we are nearly nine months into a 24 month ramp up of training and no-one knows what is going on.
The latest course is twiddling its thumbs in the ' Learning Academy' awaiting instructors.
This stuff-up will take years to fix. Unfortunately everytime the Association points out a looming problem to ASA bureaucrats they stick their fingers in their ears and cry "Industrial issues". The bureaucrats refuse to listen to their Level 3s and ALMs and controllers. I have also heard that TFN now doesn't want to listen to the GM ATC. He has hung his hat on his 'chosen ones' and will continue down this path regardless.
Did someone say "Iceberg"?
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MAX1 don't panic!
The National will save us!
iceberg on the port side!
NAB, ATS training specialists, go you good thing! WHOAooooooooooooo.
Ahh whats a DME, I'll get back to you after I ask someone who knows what a DME is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its time to get serious again, this could be lives we're talking about!
iceberg on the port side!
NAB, ATS training specialists, go you good thing! WHOAooooooooooooo.
Ahh whats a DME, I'll get back to you after I ask someone who knows what a DME is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its time to get serious again, this could be lives we're talking about!
A little birdie told me of a briefing from an ATS trainer to the exNAB management at the Academy.
"These are your requirements under the CARs"
" Oh yes, but we won't have to worry about those pesky things"
" If you don't comply with the requirements of CAR's you will face criminal charges and go to gaol"
"WHAT, do you mean these are legal requirements??????"
They have no idea.
AA
"These are your requirements under the CARs"
" Oh yes, but we won't have to worry about those pesky things"
" If you don't comply with the requirements of CAR's you will face criminal charges and go to gaol"
"WHAT, do you mean these are legal requirements??????"
They have no idea.
AA
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AsA management have been absolutely delighted to wear the big boot in many past wage negotiations. The same worn out excuses that never fail to send a chill down young ATC spines: "Our clients can't afford it." "We can't afford it." "If we can't make a profit, we can't stay in business." What happens now that the boot finds itself on another foot?
If I were Albanese, I'd be taking a broom to the AsA board as well. The board members are not without blame in this fiasco.
If I were Albanese, I'd be taking a broom to the AsA board as well. The board members are not without blame in this fiasco.
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Anyone got a copy of the email about reduced staffing/services at Bankstown?
I have sighted an email that I would love to share publicly on the thread I started about AsA's push for obligatory overtime, but have been advised that posting it there might betray commercial confidences.
Unfortunately.
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UATC, this email was sent to Bankstown operators. As a pilot who flies there, I was just wondering if anyone has a copy. Heard about it, but haven't seen it. It's a public email.
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direct.no.speed, the email I'm talking about is not directly related to air safety as such, but was from a manager-type complaining about overtime.
and back on topic,
3 days left for TFN to fix the staffing problem. - maybe he's going to work all weekend?
perhaps it will all be explained at the next "accelerated negotiations" meeting tomorrow.
and back on topic,
3 days left for TFN to fix the staffing problem. - maybe he's going to work all weekend?
perhaps it will all be explained at the next "accelerated negotiations" meeting tomorrow.
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perhaps it will all be explained at the next "accelerated negotiations" meeting tomorrow.
the good ship SS AsA just declared ramming speed for the iceberg.
They are still pushing for
1. obligatory overtime ('because I'm an employee, in thier opinion, I HAVE to do overtime)
2. "simplified" redeployment/redundancy procedures..... hmmmm.
3. keeping greviances in-house, and much harder to reach an external independant authority
4. consultation - AsA will tell us about things, listen to our viewpoint, but still make decisions that are "best for the business" - whether we agree or not
5. flexibility - allow individual variation to things such as: hours of work; starting times, shift lengths & breaks; penalty rates; redeployment/redundancy;
6. discipline
I can't wait to see what TFN and board do tomorrow (Sunday) to fix the staffing problem by 1st of September.
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History repeating
Found this: Note the date. And as yet we are still not actually withdrawing our agreement to work overtime. As yet.
23rd August 2005, 22:06 #1 (permalink)
Nomorecrap
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Posts: 45 ATC Staff Shortage set to bite
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A little birdy tells me that ATC staff are going to stop working on their days off from next week.
Some impact expected at the major cities.
Apparently constant overtime is all that has been keeping the airspace open for quite some time.
Funny - I thought I read about Airservices getting an International Award for being the best ANSP.
Maybe they meant the best for their profits!
23rd August 2005, 22:06 #1 (permalink)
Nomorecrap
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: In Limbo
Posts: 45 ATC Staff Shortage set to bite
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A little birdy tells me that ATC staff are going to stop working on their days off from next week.
Some impact expected at the major cities.
Apparently constant overtime is all that has been keeping the airspace open for quite some time.
Funny - I thought I read about Airservices getting an International Award for being the best ANSP.
Maybe they meant the best for their profits!