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The Beginning of the End?
Despite nearly 8 months of opportunity for Airservices to engage its staff in real dialogue and bargain in good faith it appears likely that the Certified Agreement 2005-2008 (Air Traffic Control and Supporting Air Traffic Services) will expire without agreement being reached. Airservices implies in its rhetoric that the fault for this failure lies solely with Civil Air; that we have failed to move on critical issues. Even in saying this, Airservices fails to see the irony in their statement that no agreement is possible without these critical items. In his latest update to staff CEO Greg Russell states:
"Even though we have put forward a range of proposals for discussion in an attempt to reach agreement, there has been very little movement by Civil Air from its log of claims. Without some agreement on the key issues of sick leave and rostering, we are not able to make a revised offer. These two areas are critical if we are to deliver not only a reasonable wage increase but also the changes needed to improve the performance of the organisation."
I would like to take the opportunity to provide you with a précis of these "key" proposals with my comments indented below. (note the full proposal is available on the Civil Air website here ) 1. Removal of "sick leave as required". This will be replaced by a sick leave provision of 15 days accruing annually with medical certificates required for all absences exceeding 1 day duration and all absences after 5 single days per year. As protection against long term illness or injury Airservices proposes paid sick leave may be available for blocks greater than 28 days under certain conditions. (Balances to be calculated based upon accrual if this scheme had commenced at original employment date minus actual sick leave taken) 2. Changes to rostering arrangements to address earlier start times, maximum shift length of 10 hours · Airservices believe that this significant reduction in conditions is necessary to enable them to effectively manage the business. They have repeatedly stated that the changes would affect very few with only the problem users being at issue. · Civil Air has repeatedly offered to help develop a leave management system to address Airservices’ inability to effectively manage its own staff without removing an entitlement from all but any discussion other than blind acceptance of this portion of the offer has simply been rejected out of hand. · I would remind members that Airservices has decided that some elements of the "Letter of Commitment" that supports the current CA will not be honoured after December 21. In light of this it is well worth looking carefully at the sick leave proposal and note the "may be available" and "under certain conditions". Airservices protests that they will of course "look after" anyone who really needs help in this area but, sadly, we have palpable evidence that their word is their bond only when it suits them.
· Airservices has these provisions now. The difference is that you have a say. What Airservices seeks is the ability to roster starts from 0500 – 0600 and shift lengths between 6 and 10 hours without seeking approval from those who work the rosters. · In all previous agreements, staff have had the ability to shape the rosters they work provided they meet the required coverage. Where variations from "standard" shift lengths and starts provided roster efficiency staff approval allowed direct input into structure of the roster and in some cases some bargaining such that there was a win – win outcome. Indeed this is the premise the facilitative arrangements were sold to staff upon.
The provisions that are currently under discussion and a summary of Airservices’ and Civil Air’s positions on these matters will shortly be posted on the Civil Air website. The "revised offer" for ARRF increased the salary component from 4% per annum to 2.15% twice per annum. At every stage of negotiation Airservices has been asked to provide detailed financial analysis of the various offers and counter-offers. Indeed they have even agreed to provide the data but in the end either a simple figure with no back up information upon its provenance or throw-away responses such as "...it’ll cost an arm and a leg" are all that are offered. This is the first negotiation at which deliberate concealment of financials has been a hallmark of Airservices strategy. It has been complemented by constant statements that more detail will only be revealed after agreement is reached.
We hope that the pre 0600 starts issue will be heard before the AIRC next week. (Possibly after the "Reasonable Additional Hours" and ALM Restructure Redeployment/Redundancy hearings) As one member put it, "This is a ‘line in the sand’ issue..." That a Certified Agreement can be sold nationally on the basis of corrections for the document already published for the vote being made in a "Letter of Commitment" and then this commitment, simply ignored, is a startling breach of trust. Constant comments are made regarding the lack of goodwill and the mistrust of ATC group for management – yet the connection with such reprehensible behaviour is not apparent to Airservices. It was frankly insulting to read that, "...people's memories and time has [sic] clouded the original intent..." That Airservices has limited corporate memory, presumably due in part to the dramatic staff turnover commensurate with the arrival of the current CEO, does not diminish the clear recollection of those that negotiated the last agreement. Indeed Mr. Hodgson should recall the context of the "Letter of Commitment" if only because it bears his signature.
The current offer provides, I believe, a substantial reduction in conditions and what could be a real loss in salary over the term of the agreement. December 21 is not far away. We will maintain our best efforts until that date. If no agreement is struck we will conduct divisional meetings nationally on Monday December 22 to discuss our collective intentions beyond expiry. Expiry of the agreement opens a variety of options to us that are not possible prior to expiry, even though we would prefer not to be in the position of having these available. At that meeting, should it be necessary, we will discuss possible actions from this point.
It’s far from all over. Whilst I would prefer to be writing to you that we had already struck a fair bargain it appears that we should be planning for agreement expiry without a new one in place. Winston Churchill famously said; "...this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Robert Mason |