Air Traffic Control Issues

[JessicaTam]

Yes, while we do have unlimited sick leave, (what we call sick leave as required), it doesn't equate to being able to take 50 days off scot-free in a year. As a controller, we hold something called a Class 3 CASA Medical. It's incredibly similar to the medical commercial pilots hold. Two of the requirements to exercise the privileges of my ATC license, are that I need to have a valid medical, and I need to be fit for duty. (The details of this are available in the CASRs, and the Air Traffic Control Enterprise Agreement 2024-2027).

If I start a new medication, CASA may temporarily suspend my medical for X number of weeks, to ensure my fitness for duty under the provisions of my medical. This means I legally cannot work, until I get the thumbs up from CASA.

When I rock up for work, I need to be fit for duty, meaning I need to be well-rested, healthy, not sick, etc. This is again, a legal requirement. By rocking up to work sick, I am breaking the law, and more importantly, my impaired performance at work degrades the safety margins of the air traffic system we operate in. Airservices, and our union, has made it very clear, that if I have an incident, as a result of rocking up to work with a head cold, or fatigued, or stressed, I am wholly at fault for this. Sick leave as required allows Airservices to discharge this responsibility onto me. (It prevents me from saying "I was forced to come in sick, otherwise I'm not able to pay the mortgage").

For all effective purposes, we have 15 days of sick leave a year. Sick leave / absenteeism above 15 days, which does not have a very good reason for it, (I broke my arm, I'm in hospital), will land me in hot water, and I can be forced to take it unpaid. Despite what the media says, I can't take every Friday off scot-free.

Welcome to AFF @checkstate.

Thank you for clearing up some of the unfounded nonsense being flung around this thread.

 

[Wolbi136]

I'm a fellow en route controller in Melbourne and another issue to do with blank shifts in the roster is training.

Trainees come from the academy and are allocated the standard amount of training shifts and they are then on the roster, filling shifts.

If their training is disrupted eg by their training getting cancelled because their trainer needs to cover another shift, or they need more time to get up to standard, their rostered shifts get made blank because they haven't finished training yet.

And the cycle continues.

Training is slow at the best of times, and exacerbated by the persistent staffing issues.

 

[Quickstatus]

Welcome to a AFF and a hot topic @checkstate
Thanks for providing an important context to the debate

@Wolbi136 and @checkstate
Can you pleaseclear up something else for me:
Are ATC excellent at Video Games?

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @checkstate and thanks for your insights.

 

[Seat0B]

I also add my welcome to AFF @checkstate and @Wolbi136. Good to have your perspectives on this topic.

 

[Seat0B]

Also to those asking about “unlimited sick leave”, we had it in the military, in a way. You could have whatever sick leave the Medical Officer authorised - as much as they said you needed. Some of them were hard coughs of the “it’s only a flesh wound” variety but others were more reasonable.

But there was a downside - there was absolutely zero sick leave without a chit from the MO. So definitely no sick leave for hangovers, man flu or mental health days (unless you owned up to a genuine mental health issue in which case you could have sick leave).

I recall it took me a long time in civvie street to get used to people chucking a sickie or even self diagnosing that their cold was bad enough they needed a day off and the boss not really being able to do too much about it. It was a different time back then and “soldiering on” was a real thing and a badge of honour. I’m glad that COVID gave a bit of a wake up call about going to work when genuinely crook and infecting all your colleagues.