Thread by @BFPCA_

#60ProtestReasons: 23 – ATC shortages to delay noise improvements
@couriermail reported that @australia_air, the air traffic controllers’ union, estimates it could take years to implement the PIR flight path changes due to chronic staff shortages.
bfpca.org.au/23-atc-shortag…

During COVID @AirservicesNews executive management decided to cut costs by reducing staffing numbers. They offered a Retirement Incentive Scheme (RIS) to Air Traffic Controllers over the age of 56 who were expected to retire within the next three years. (Hang on, what?? ...

... ATCs can retire at 55 anyway!) They got a private tax ruling from the @ato_gov_au that it could be treated tax-wise as a redundancy. Between Oct 2021 – Dec 2022, 486 staff left Airservices, of those 184 were ATCs, and of those 144 took advantage of the RIS who got between ...

$300,000 – $400,000 each to walk away. So the total cost of the RIS was $58 million.
They were warned by staff & @australia_air that they would not have enough ATCs when traffic picked up. This has now materialised to the extent that Minister @CatherineKingMP had to intervene.

How can this be legal under Australian tax law to give redundancies whilst recruiting to fill the same positions? Why “bring forward” the retirements of those who were about to retire anyway at great cost whilst at the same time recruiting to replace the same people? @ato_gov_au

.@LucasBairdAus / @FinancialReview on this topic:

https://twitter.com/FinancialReview/status/1627452021031796736

.@ironsider / @australian on this topic:

https://twitter.com/aus_business/status/1643412313058463746

While the salary is nice, this will still be a challenging recruitment task considering the abysmally bad reviews of @AirservicesNews as an employer on @Glassdoor. Here is a selection: 🧵

glassdoor.com.au/Reviews/Airser…

“No responsibility taken by executives for toxic culture“

“Everything gets held up by red tape and managers who actively road block“

“poor culture“

“Old boys club where people get promoted for who they know and not on merit”

“I have never worked for a company that is so out of touch with their own project delivery team and other internal stakeholders. Some areas are supportive but most are disruptive and go out of their way to deroad your project.”

“Management are completely useless and cause more headaches than anything. Running the business into the ground to the point that there’s no other option but to go to market to outsource.”

“It is truly hilarious watching the bumbling antics of the management trying to appease the incompetent CEO they’re all terrified of, while trying to maintain the illusion the company is any good at what it does. Genuine comedy gold. There is nowhere else you can experience ...

... third world attitudes and management culture, while being paid a first world salary. Each day presents a more incredible and improbable scenario than the last – the writers of The Office couldn’t script the stuff that happens. It’s been a real lesson in the level of bald ...

... faced lies that can be told to the media without apparent consequences.”

“It’s going to fall apart one day when the professionalism of the Air Traffic Controllers can no longer balance the bungling incompetence and lack of regard for safety of the upper management team. At that point, people die. And that’s scary.”

glassdoor.com.au/Reviews/Airser…

And this comes 3 years AFTER Airservices was in the news for a systemic sexual harassment and bullying scandal that led to an intervention by the Australian Senate. Do you want to know more? Read the report but you better sit down for this one: airservicesaustralia.com/wp-content/upl…

.@AirservicesNews CEO, Board and entire executive team need to be removed, held to account, and the entire organisation brought back under public control as a statutory authority. The corporatisation experiment has failed, @CatherineKingMP.

Let's all join the protest that Minister @CatherineKingMP called for: bfpca.org.au/protest/

All protest reasons on one page: bfpca.org.au/60reasons/