Merged: ASA Staff Shortage

[Baileys]

A large ad in a national newspaper stating the real facts would be a good pre-emptive investment I think. Get the truth out there before the lies get spread. You have got to be pro-active.

[peuce]

Priceless ...

[undervaluedATC]

Baileys:Expose all the lies before you all get shafted again.

that reminds me: after a hiatus (in which authors may or may not have moved overseas ), the guys/gals at certifiedshafting are back!

but the censor software won't let me paste a link

google it (oneword) - that should work.

[Sunfish]

Look up "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" or "Industrial Psychopathy". My bet will be that the behaviour correlates one to one.

[BMW-Z4]

Sunfish if there is one thing we are not short of in this industry it is behavioural disorders. Pathological organisations and the weirdst of individuals - a PhD thesis in the making. This goes to the demise, decimation and chaos of the whole aviation system from the stability, simplicity and safety of 18 years ago. We continue to see such appalling examples of leadership. We still see individuals influencing and personality managing the future of the industry without once looking back at lessons learned. Individuals that have caused the current disorder and then suddenly ride up on their white horse and are our sudden saviours. This is called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. For example: the same small minded individuals that one day say use risk managment processes and the next day say change this immediately without any consideration at all. The same individuals that say see and be seen is safe, minimise use of radio and the next moment are finding other reasons for the disaster they have incrementally or directly affected. One day they want less regulated airspace and do not want to pay for anything and the next day they are complaining about lack of services and protection. Realistically the road back to a simple and effective airspace, ATC, flying, regulatory structure is long and probably unlikely. A decent relationship between Airservices and ATC will never be possible until someone works out that the method (management) of comercialisation that is currently being used is not working. Part of the problem is the advice given to the people in public office and the courage of those people to stand up against those that have little talent, and ethics, delusions of their own knowledge and ability and big mouths. Until we get some strength and courage in public office nothing will change, there will be no accountability but in the long run and hopefully there will be no redemption for the incompetents. I hear that CASA has some future hope. Justice may be revenge.

[Robbovic]

The following is a quote from TFNs Christmas CEO message reference the ATC CA negotiations:

"I believe that many of those involved keenly appreciate the desirability of continuing to seek an agreement and also ensuring that the process does not have any adverse impacts on the travelling public."

I know I shouldn't feed the porcupine, but I just can't resist saying this one more time with the forlorn hope that the narcissistic moron will finally see the real risk to the business.

TFN, EVEN IF WE SIGN THE CA TOMORROW, WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH STAFF... I REPEAT, WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH STAFF TO COVER UNFORSEEN ABSENCES. IN SOME CASES NOT ENOUGH TO COVER THE ROSTER. THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT INDUSTRIAL ACTION, THIS IS REALITY.

I cant shout any louder and, anyway, I fear no-one in AWB is listening.

(AWB - now there's a scary coincidence)

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

TKS 'ML',

I would imagine that your union is now 'responding' by collating data to start correcting some of the 'numbers claims' - publicly - Newspapers, TV(?) - 7.30 Report, ABC etc etc ?? - and publishing your rosters complete with blanks, as a positive action rather than a 'reaction'....

'Peuce' has a good suggestion, as do many others, but you can only do what you can do.....and, Robbo (above) certainly seems passionate enough to
want to do something....

The 22 nd is but '3 sleeps' away.......

All the Very Best.

[Funk]

[QUOTE]4 (a) Total unplanned absence days - all air traffic controllers
.....................................2005/06........... 2006/07.............. 2007/08
Sick leave....................... 12,123 ...............13,401 ..............13,509
Personal Leave............. 1,525 .................1,500 ..................1,629
........................................13,648.... .......... 14,902 ................15,138

Again, an increase. wow, maybe there is a trend.

But Wait!!!

4 (d) Total sick leave days taken by air traffic controllers by duration
..............................................2005/06 ...............2006/07 ..............2007/08
Single day .................................6,119 .....................6,548 .................5,683
Between 2 & 10 days ..............4,845................... 5,004................... 5,130
Greater than 10 days ..............1,159................... 1,848 ...................2,697
.................................................. .12,123 .................13,401 .................13,509


What's this? Single day absences - what Senator McGuaran alluded to as "sickies" in a senate hearing - ACTUALLY DECREASED BY 865.

And there was an increase of more than 800 cases of sick leave lasting 10 days or more. But guess what? That kind of sick leave gets looked at VERY CLOSELY by the employer, and needs doctors certificates to support it. (in fact, 2 or more days needs a doctors certificate) It also suggests that some people were seriously sick for extended periods - WHICH is another reason why the actual number of available controllers is in dispute. You cannot count people on long term sick leave as available staff.

What we have is an decreasing number of aging staff.[QUOTE]


These figures are alarming and in the long run are unsustainable for any industry. I cannot imagine any business being able to stay afloat if you had to cover so much unplanned absenteeism.

Before I get flamed the reason that employees would engage in such high rate of absenteeism is that they just don't want to be at work and the blame for such behaviour would have to rest solely with the way the business is run.

I enjoy going to work and so do the vast majority of my co workers. I put this down to:

1.you will be fired if you take too many sick single days.
2.your licence will be suspended by the regulator for more than 12 sick days in a 12 month period and you will be asked to show cause. In effect medical absenteeism is individually monitored by the regulators medical officers not by some HR clerk/manager using spurious criteria.
3.we are on a liveable work rotation with no short turn-arounds.
4.our work is challenging and a true team ethos is encouraged by local management.
5.we are not unduly crucified for minor errors and a environment of full safety reporting is encouraged (albeit the latter has only occurred in the 18 months).

I can tell you from personal experience that with regards to items 2, 3 & 4 AsA failed miserably in the last 5 or so years that I was there.
Like others have said before me a quick 4% pay rise isn't going to fix any of these problems.
Additionally CASA has to grow a set of balls and protect the travelling public, aviation stakeholders as well as controllers at the work face.

[undervaluedATC]

Funk, reference the "greater than 10 days sick leave" the cynic inside me thinks it also includes maternity leave - (else why is it not listed separately?)

Funk:These figures are alarming and in the long run are unsustainable for any industry. I cannot imagine any business being able to stay afloat if you had to cover so much unplanned absenteeism.

It takes up to 2 years to recruit and train a new person (and up to another 3 to make a Full Performance Controller) so it makes no sense to tell an existing controller to "show cause" if they need a couple of weeks sick leave for illness/injury etc.

And as I said, these examples are looked at VERY CLOSELY by managers/supervisors and DAME's - it is not a blank cheque.

Funk:1.you will be fired if you take too many sick single days.

as mentioned in my post - single sick days actually decreased by more than 800 instances in the past year.

Funk:3.we are on a liveable work rotation with no short turn-arounds.

umm...
hmmm....
you be the judge:
8 hrs on
12.5 off
8 on
10.5 off
7 on
10 off
7 on
called for overtime
called for overtime
.... repeat ad nauseum.


So, my point is: AsA has been keeping tabs on the sick leave since forever. It really makes you wonder why they "promoted" 97 controllers to ALM positions, the majority of whom no longer hold ratings for separating aircraft, when it seems obvious to me that we need every possible controller we can get our hands on.

Funnily enough, the airlines (i.e. our customers) actually have a policy of overstaffing to cover seasonal illness/unforeseen events so that the planes keep flying.

[max1]

I have had one 2 day break in the last month and a bit, last fortnight period did two full O/T shifts and asked to work all other days off( can't wife works and kids on school holidays), came in early to cover and stayed back late on rostered shifts.
Was asked to return to work after 10pm finish last night to start at 6am this morning (8 hour breaks are acceptable and not fatiguing) on my single day break. Was then asked to start at 4am tomorrow and Monday before starting double night shifts on Monday night.
What staffing crisis, everything is wonderful problems were all solved at the end of August apparently.

There are no Americans in Baghdad.

Airways Revenue (Nav and ARFF)brings in 95% of ASA revenue, has always done.
Last year this was $707 million, out of a total revenue of $744 million. Profit was around $96 million. Interestingly ASA returned a bigger dividend to government this year than last year when profit was $106million, around $66 million.
That's right $66 million was taken from industry and given to government.Nearly $200million has been given to the government in the last 3 years as a dividend.
All controller type wages adds up to around $110 million, whether they are talking to planes or not. There are 480 people working in Canberra, out of a staff of just over 3000. There are around 800 operational controllers and shrinking. Six years ago there were 366 people in Canberra.

[Funk]

Bit off thread...
but the last post reminds me of when I first went to sea in 1984 with BHP, we had 23 bulk carriers managed by a shore staff of about 200 people, our competitor the government owned ANL (Aust. National Line) had a fleet of 35 ships with a shore staff approaching 5000 people.
When the new CEO was appointed to ANL in 1985 he was heard to say that it was a good company ruined by a few dozen ships....has a familiar ring to it?

[west atc]

I have had one 2 day break in the last month and a bit, last fortnight period did two full O/T shifts and asked to work all other days off( can't wife works and kids on school holidays), came in early to cover and stayed back late on rostered shifts.
Was asked to return to work after 10pm finish last night to start at 6am this morning (8 hour breaks are acceptable and not fatiguing) on my single day break. Was then asked to start at 4am tomorrow and Monday before starting double night shifts on Monday night.
What staffing crisis, everything is wonderful problems were all solved at the end of August apparently.

I have been there and know that it is easier said then done, but the simple solution is to say "NO" to any overtime request that is affecting your home life or health. Working so much overtime is only benefiting the company, sure the money is nice but it is a short sighted view to do too much overtime purely for the money.

Max1, I know from the history of your posts that you are not one of "those people" but I would be surprised if the same old suspects on each group are not working incredible amounts of overtime just to keep the place running.
The longer these people keep working the overtime, the longer this is going to drag out the current situation.

And before any trolls in the AWB think I am advocating industrial action, bear in mind that there is HUGE difference between "reasonable overtime" and the amount of overtime that some of these people are doing.

[Baileys]

Some of you people are bizarre...

If I worked on any of my days off my wife would be asking why, my kids would want to know why dad isn't home hanging out with them, and i would personally be wondering if i really understood what life is about (hint - it's not about working for the man).

Overtime is for fools....who cares if the company wants you to do this or that. Get a life.

I bet none of those Canberra managers works on saturday or sunday or on any of their precious public holidays or over christmas or easter trying to figure out their staffing problems. They don't care...so long as those controllers work on their weekends.

Controllers working overtime to cover up management inability to manage things correctly helps nobody. Not you (wanting things fixed) and not them (trying to cover up their stuff-ups and pretending there is no problem - well done you are helping out heaps).

Then those same controllers will be complaining about getting a crap offer for the pay negotiation......hello - what do you expect....wake up to yourselves.

[Blockla]

[RANT]

There are two primary reasons why people work overtime.

1) For the cash; and
2) To provide a service to industry and not leave their colleagues battling alone.

You will never remove the first motivator, such is life. There should be little need for or no need for option two; certainly less need than there is.

The staffing crisis is very much real. The reliance on Overtime is extraordinary. This was overtime reliance was primarily motivated by economic rationalisation. They way the company runs their budget/finance it is cheaper to pay 60% extra shifts in overtime than employ an extra FTE.

If your staffing number calls for 23.6 people much cheaper to cover the .6 on OT than pay for the extra 1.0; because of 'on costs'.

This has become systemic and part of the management ethos, particularly at high levels. They have then chipped away at other staff resource costs such as training specialists, support roles, college instructors, etc. CBT has replaced real training, turning what little time available for training into mostly a box ticking exercise; significant amounts of this CBT is done during breaks from the console, not on rostered training days.

There is no capacity to cover long term sick leave, release people for Leave without pay, or approve long service leave, or cover people leaving to get away from the man; and still the corporate spin turns the argument into a total desire for extra money as the only motivator and 'deliberate' action to 1) Create overtime (sick-out) and 2) Deliberately not cover sick-leave (to strengthen industrial position). Hello, hello, why does it need strengthening?

There is one group in the whole company that has 'correct' staffing and that group is working very little OT, and having airspace closures, hence giving them the evidence to support their assertion that it's a campaign. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Since getting to Ireland (I'm a deserter), a move certainly not done for cash... I have noticed a completely different attitude toward staffing levels and overtime.

The Irish by Australian standards are flush with staff; some of them have worked up to 19 extra days (which is a lot) for the entire year, most Irish ATCs have worked 3 or 4 shifts; yet they are still working on getting an extra 50 ATCs (already rated) on top of their abinitio program. The Irish work 'true' team rosters which are certainly not very efficient (compared to home) but the advantages are they never reduce capacity because of staffing, they have very little reliance on overtime and I'm sure their sick leave stats are much more "healthy" than at home, they run TRUCE (IFER) training days plus proficiency training too which includes training in the simulators and classroom; certainly not box ticking in front of a computer.

Compare that with home where the desire is to trim the rosters with fancy rostering tools and silly projects to reduce numbers despite all evidence suggesting the project(s) would be more staff intensive; ever with the desire from above to reduce budgets against the ledger thus assisting the payment of bonuses to upper management.

The reliance on overtime has grown where some staff are working in excess of one overtime shift per week, that's right over 50 extra days a year; I'd hate to think about how they run their family/social lives.

The lip service paid to the 'overseas recruiting campaign' was a classic joke of epic proportions, such is the work environment that all but the Sth Africans want to return home and will be doing so when their 'Australian to do list' is complete; this will exacerbate the staffing crisis.

And don't get me started on the box ticking that is 'safety assessments'.

[/RANT]

PS agree Baileys, wake up people, you obligations to industry and colleagues are complete by working your rostered duty, above that is above your obligation and is a nice to do not a must do, excluding motivator point one above...

[89 steps to heaven]

Some of you people are bizarre...

Not bizarre, but professional. We don't like to leave airspace uncontrolled or with a reduced service, and we certainly don't like leaving our workmates in the lurch.

Anybody out there that thinks we are deliberately giving the industry or our employer a hard time is dead wrong. We are doing our best with very limited resources.

[Adamastor]

Helping perpetuate a flawed system by wallpapering over the cracks doesn't make you professional.

[Chief galah]

Adamastor

.....and your solution is.......??

[Baileys]

Isn't the solution obvious.....does it need to be spelt out any more?

Start doing yourselves some favours.

It's so easy - adamastor is exactly right.

[Nautilus Blue]

Working overtime for A$A is like giving an alcoholic a drink. The sad fact is without TIBA's and more importantly the publicity about TIBA's, nothing would have been done (even if it is to little too late). I was always prepared to give up a day off to keep the system working while it was a short term problem, but for years it seems to have been policy rather than predicament causing OT.

There is no perfect solution. Closing airspace is shafting the public at best, dangerous at worst. However, if you keep wallpapering over the cracks, they get bigger, making 'the big one' more and more likely.

As for not leaving your colleagues alone, as much as I dislike working with Mr TIBA, it's better than a coworker who hasn't had more than a few hours sleep in the past few days.

[max1]

I didn't return after my 10pm shift, and enjoyed my day off with family, and didn't agree to the 4 am starts, too fatiguing.
I was giving an example where you do a lot more and then just get asked to do more.
ASA would have Joe Public believe through their Corporate Affairs (@50 people now, in 1998 there were 3 PR people) that controllers are running an industrial campaign.BS.

Controllers have always had the legal backing to say no to O/T due to many reasons, family committments,work/life balance, fatigue,etc, but have not invoked them due to an ethos not to inconvenience industry.
ASA have abused this over the years, no need to employ the correct number of controllers as these suckers will just keep covering for us and we'll drag in the bonuses.

Well ASA are now reaping what they have sown. Unfortunately it is the industry that is paying for the mismanagement. ASA wheel out the spin doctors to divert blame.

This has served to further disengage controllers who are putting their health and families first for a change.