[Peetwo]

Airservices scuttlebutt hot off the Press -  

A mighty conundrum.

I have, with some care and diligence, ploughed my way through the State Safety Program (SSP) with which Australia is obliged, under the ICAO agreement is to comply. I have even managed to define the loosely formed connections between what Australia has ‘scripted’ and the spirit and intent of the ICAO ‘vision’.  No matter.

As we have discussed many times recently on AP the Air Services debacle screams for the SSP to be initiated. The proposed dilution and privatization of 25% of an essential safety service is a prime candidate. All the trigger points are loaded, the alarum bells are ringing and yet the CASA boss Carmody, chooses to hide behind another, pointless, costly, time gaining review, making veiled threats and insulting expert industry leaders.

Halfwit should never have been allowed to continue running the operation; the conflict of interest and government audit should have forced him to stand down – at least until the entire ‘One Shy’ situation had been ‘properly’ investigated. If we must fund yet another useless inquiry, why not spend the dollars on sorting out ASA? Before someone gets hurt.

The SSP is there to be used in just such a situation – the public should be informed that there is system to analyse and dissect the risible ASA solution to their own problems; created out of greed, ego, arse covering and ‘mates’ being looked after. Both Angus Houston and Chester need to resign and take their entertaining Halfwit and Carmody with them, they are, IMO a national disgrace.  The only 'myth' that needs busting here is that of honesty, competence and how a billion dollar a year monopoly can be broke. The whole thing is a farce, in danger of becoming a tragedy.

CASA can initiate the SSP, in a heartbeat; the question begging is Why have they not?

Toot toot.

Sometimes "K" your timing is impeccable -  

I'll let the "other" Aunty explain...

Pilots, air traffic controllers raise safety concerns over plan to axe 900 jobs

By national technology reporter Jake Sturmer and the National Reporting Team's Benjamin Sveen

Updated about an hour ago Sun 30 Oct 2016, 7:54am

Photo: Airservices insists the cuts will only affect back room support staff. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin)

Serious air traffic safety concerns have been raised by aviation workers over plans to axe 900 jobs at Airservices Australia, the organisation controlling skies at the country's major airports.

Key points:

• The cuts would reduce Airservices' workforce by almost a quarter
  
• Aviation experts say their concerns have fallen on deaf ears
  
• Airservices insists the cuts will only affect back room support staff
  

The concerns have been raised by air traffic controllers employed by Airservices, as well as pilots.

Unions representing the workers who are likely to be affected are seeking an urgent Fair Work Commission hearing to stop the job cuts.

Lawyers from the CPSU, ETU and Professionals Australia are requesting an immediate suspension of the Accelerate program, which will see a reduction of Airservices' workforce by almost a quarter over the next year.

Airservices, the government-owned organisation responsible for air traffic control, airway navigation and emergency services for airports, insists the cuts will only affect back room support staff.

However, the ABC has spoken to several Airservices insiders and aviation experts who claim that despite repeated attempts for clarification about how the Accelerate program will affect the security of the nation's skies, their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

"We haven't seen any of the safety work that's being done to justify this being a safe course of action" said Melbourne-based air traffic controller Tom McRoberts.

"Airservices say they've done it all but we haven't seen any."

Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au

Mr McRoberts, who has more than a decade's experience working as an air traffic controller and is also president of Civil Air, fears the engineers responsible for keeping aeronautical equipment in working order could be among those facing redundancies.

"[They are] taking guys away from being able to fix my radar if the radar falls over. I'm yet to see any documentation to say that's a good thing," Mr McRoberts said.

Cuts only affect back office, technical staff: Airservices

But a spokeswoman for Airservices said that it had engaged in comprehensive consultation with the industry prior to announcing the job cuts, which would only affect back office and technical staff.

"We are not reducing the size of our operational and rostered air traffic control or aviation rescue firefighting staffing," the spokeswoman added.

Earlier this year, an ABC investigation revealed serious malfunctions in radar systems operated by Airservices Australia which led to some planes briefly disappearing from Sydney Airport's tracking system.

The CPSU is one of the unions calling for an urgent meeting in Canberra to address employees' concerns.

"When you get multiple faults happening that's where you get into trouble. So being able to fix faults as quickly as possible is really important," said CPSU president Alistair Waters.

"That's why those highly skilled technical staff are just so critical.

"One of the reasons why you absolutely need to have very high standards and low risk margins in aviation is because when you're talking about aviation risk, you're talking about catastrophic risk."

Some pilots have also approached the ABC, expressing outrage at Airservices for their lack of consultation about the Accelerate program and what it will mean for Australia's air traffic network.

Pilots group brands planned cuts 'utterly disgraceful'

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia (AOPA), which represents over 3,000 general aviation pilots, is calling for the resignation of Airservices chief executive Jason Harfield.

"It's utterly disgraceful ... I find it almost incomprehensible that the senior executive team of this billion-dollar organisation have not been able to secure the futures of these people who they are now asking to leave," AOPA's executive director Ben Morgan said.

"The people that are going to feel this the most are the low end. This is going to be another exercise in the top end of the organisation band-aiding their problems and their mistakes by asking the people at the bottom end of the chain to sacrifice their day-to-day work."

The unions' dispute was lodged with the Fair Work Commission last Friday.

They are claiming that up to 40 workers are being pressured to move from enterprise agreements to individual contracts, or else face involuntary redundancies.

During a combative Senate Estimates hearing on October 17, Mr Harfield told the committee that some workers would be moved into leadership positions as a result of the restructure and these roles were typically covered by individual contracts.

An Airservices spokeswoman told the ABC that every application for a voluntary redundancy, or consideration of an involuntary redundancy, would be assessed individually to determine "any potential impact on the safety of our air traffic control or aviation rescue fire fighting operations".

"Appropriate actions have been taken to ensure that the implementation of the Accelerate program is managed in a way that assures operational safety is considered throughout the life of the change program," the Airservices spokeswoman said.

Airservices began providing routine safety assurance reports to the aviation regulator CASA regarding the progress of Accelerate program last May.

Ferryman here's your argument in two lines, from ATCO (> 10yrs) & CA President Mr McRoberts, that the SSP should now be activated...

"We haven't seen any of the safety work that's being done to justify this being a safe course of action"  

&..

"Airservices say they've done it all but we haven't seen any."

So what say you now Wingnut Comardy & Electric Blue Harfwit?? Show us your fully transparent safety case through the ASA SMS and the consequential audit/review by CASA, according to the requirements Chapter 2 section 2.2 of the SSP.

Mr Comardy in case your luxuriating beside a five star pool, here's a handy QR from the Mount NCN thread...

2.2 Safety management system obligations

Australia has introduced the requirement for the implementation of SMS in certain sectors of the aviation industry. CASA has introduced the requirement for the following civil aviation service providers to implement SMS:

• ...Air Operators—Civil Aviation Orders (CAO) 82.3 and CAO 82.5 require both high capacity and low capacity RPT operators to establish and maintain appropriate operations with a sound and effective management structure that uses an SMS approved by CASA....
  

• ...Air Traffic Service Providers—CASR Part 172 provides that an air traffic service provider must have, and put into effect, an SMS that includes the policies, procedures, and practices necessary to provide the air traffic services covered by its approval safely...
  

• ...Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Services (ARFFS)—CASR Subpart 139.H provides that the ARFFS provider must have an SMS consistent with the requirements in the Manual of Standards, including the policies, procedures and practices necessary to provide the service safely...
  

• ...Aeronautical telecommunication and radionavigation service providers – CASR Subpart 171.C requires service providers to have SMS processes in place to assess...
  

These requirements recognise the relevant ICAO SARPs outlined in ICAO Annex 19, Safety Management, and the safety benefits to be gained by the effective establishment by industry of an SMS. Where appropriate this requirement will be extended to additional sections of the industry.

CASA provides a range of support for the implementation of a SMS and continues to develop and review the guidance material to assist industry with their SMS.

More information on Australia's adoption of SMS can be found on CASA's website.

Links to more information about requirements for civil aviation service providers SMS implementation is at Appendix F. 

---

&..

Service providers’ safety performance

An important element of a mature system of safety management oversight is agreement between the safety regulator and service providers on the key performance indicators and expected level of performance to be achieved. In the Australian safety regulatory system this level of performance is in part judged by how the service provider delivers against its SMS, therefore oversight of a SMS is included in CASA's audit programme for the operators who are mandated to have a SMS.

(P2 - It would/should be safe to assume that there would also be significant organisational developments within a service provider, such as 900 odd redundancies, which 'should' automatically red flag a need for CASA to facilitate a special audit process.) 

   
MTF...P2