[Kharon]

Claims that employee fatigue at Aerocare is leading to accidents
 
Last month 7.30 exposed claims of poor conditions for employees of the Australian company Aerocare, which provides essential ground services to airlines. Aerocare denied the claims. Now there are new claims that employee fatigue is leading to accidents.
Contains: video, image,

From the Honey cart to Boardroom.

It is ‘uphill’ and we all know it don’t flow that way. It flows downhill from the false goddess of OTP. The  proudly quoted ‘On Time Performance’ data comes at a great cost; not financially, but in human terms and a potential cause of accident. 99% OTP can be achieved – provided the ‘schedules’ are sensible, without reasonable schedule it become mission impossible.

Say you are booked on Rex out of Dubbo at 0700 to connect with Qantas to Melbourne at 0930. Barring accidents, and Murphy, there is little excuse for the Rex flight not taking off on the dot of 0700. Landing time schedules say 0800; traffic into Sydney may hold you up six or ten minutes, but you will arrive in time to transfer and catch the Melbourne flight. As a passenger this is great. You arrive at Gate 13 to check in and find a seat. Now the clock ticks past 0930 and by 0935, you are wondering, by 0938 you are thinking of asking what the hold up is and by 0940, just as patience begins to fade the boarding begins, eventually the aircraft pushes back, starts up and you are on your way. Relaxed now and only 15 minutes late.

What the OTP interested passenger does not know is that the aircraft has been ‘turned around’ in a state of controlled panic. The aircraft left Brisbane 10 minutes late; got held up coming into Sydney due other traffic and then a runway change added another 10 minutes to the journey time. Instead of landing at 0815, it was finally ‘on blocks’ at 0840. No problem for those getting off – but for the turn-around crew – it’s action time. 200 bags off, 200 bags on; the fuel truck is finishing off another aircraft which decided to increase their fuel uplift; the caterer’s truck has arrived, the cleaning crew are going through, there's an engineer on the flight deck checking out (off) a 'snag' etc. It is busy. These jobs all take time and no matter how much anyone rushes about; the aircraft is going to be – in the public eye – delayed.

The old adage ‘more haste-less speed’ is pertinent; but it is not the solution.  The on time performance demands can easily be met – by ‘sensible scheduling’. The turn-around time in total; landing to take off, should be scheduled for the worst case, not the ideal. A couple of bag snatchers off a crew, gone home sick, can place an intolerable burden of a crew which was ‘cut to the bone’ to begin with, being led by a ‘management’ type with an eye on a better job is a risk. Add to that long shifts, bad weather, delay after delay turning up the pressure, make that happen three times in a five day week and a clear picture begins to emerge.

Fatigued, stressed, threatened people are not a good thing to have ‘on ramp’. Sensible scheduling and an extra pair of hands or two would reduce the emerging increase in error rate dramatically. But the false goddess must be served and the bottom line must be kept to a minimum. We all know; it’s better to say nothing and tough out the shift, lest the bean counters get wind of sedition. I say if an airline is so dependent on shaving a few bucks off the bottom line of everything, then something is wrong with the management thinking. Add an extra five buck to every ticket, build some fat into the schedule, put an extra couple of men on peak period shifts. Acknowledge there was an increasing safety risk which has now been dealt with; responsibly. OTP guaranteed from sensible schedule; Murphy notwithstanding.  Folk will forgive the occasional 15 minute delay – it happens – they will not forgive an accident caused by greed and stupidity; never have, never will.

Toot toot.