[Peetwo]

Update: Harfwit's shrinking (OneSky) trough fund -

By Binger, courtesy the Oz:

Airservices loses 523 to voluntary redundancy in bid to cut costs

"My balls are this big.." -
Airservices Australia's chief executive Jason Harfield. Picture: Ray Strange

• Mitchell Bingemann
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM July 22, 2016
  

Reporter
Sydney
@Mitch_Hell
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/4c134add4c3a9e4881f7841b69d9ac85/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
Airservices Australia has accepted 523 voluntary redundancies from its staff as part of a wide-ranging transformation process to slash costs by more than $100 million.

The organisation will report a loss — its first in two decades — of more than $10m this financial year amid spiralling costs. It made a $4.5m profit last financial year.

Airservices, with more than 4400 staff, manages air traffic at the ­nation’s major airports as well as co-ordinating on-site rescue and firefighting services.

The organisation received more than 660 applications for voluntary redundancies but had to knock back more than 100 because they were roles involved with operational and safety matters.

“To ensure this process will not affect our ability to deliver our services to industry, now or in the future, we have worked through a detailed and rigorous process which saw every VR application assessed individually to determine any potential impact on the safety of our air traffic control or aviation rescue fire fighting operations,” Airservices chief Jason Harfield wrote in an email to staff today.

“This process saw our senior leaders identify actions which need to be completed prior to individuals departing the business while in some instances VR applications were declined where risks were identified. In other cases, required actions may take some time so departure dates will be later following the successful completion of actions to mitigate any risks.”

Eligible staff for voluntary redundancy will have two weeks to consider the offer and advise whether they accept. Once accepted, a departure date will be determined, taking into account any necessary risk mitigation actions.

“Again I wanted to recognise the uncertainty that this may have created for staff and I thank you for your patience as we work to progress through this as quickly as possible,” Mr Harfield said.

The cuts come as Airservices attempts to rein in costs that have pushed it into loss.
While the organisation continues to pull in more than $1 billion a year in ­revenue — mostly fees paid by ­airlines — costs continue to eclipse its income, blamed on backroom ­inefficiencies and stalling airline fees.

A 12-month plan — internally titled “Accelerate” — to arrest the growth in costs has begun.

The Australian understands Airservices has already cut more than 250 level three and four managers from its ranks. Level three managers generally head up specific branches and departments in Airservices while level four managers operate on a rung below that.

Insiders at Airservices say the cuts have come after an eight-year period of unsustainable growth in staff numbers.

The increase in staff had been a result of pressure to implement its $1.5bn OneSKY project to integrate the civilian and military air traffic control and navigation systems with new radar in a state-of-the-art system by 2021.

 
Why do I get the feeling that Harfwit is enjoying all this 'accelerating'? -



MTF...P2