Statistics and Lies

The first thing I’ll comment about is the fact you can do a lot with facts and figures; the article in the Independent last week which eluded that Irish ATCOs as the highest paid in the world, except for our Spanish colleagues.  Despite this being false; the article also failed to consider a range of other issues; these may include cost of living, taxes paid against wage earned, average wages in the particular country, whether the ANSP is a for profit ‘privatised’ organisation or government-owned cost recovery organisation, semi-state etc.  The method in which employees are paid has a direct link with the manner in which airlines are charged.

See this report for a benchmark of costs in Europe for ATCOs and ANSPs and airways charges.

Click to access ACE_2007_Benchmarking_Report.pdf

Although the data for benchmarking is going back to the 2007 (published in May 2009); as these reports take significant time to produce.  This is however the most accurate comparative data available at present.  The next set of data should be available in 5 months or so.

The total money spent in providing ATC services in Ireland in 2007 was €75 per hour. The European average is €93 per hour.

This €75 per hour isn’t the direct cost or hourly rate of the ATCO, but the total costs, including training time for new projects or new positions, instructors working short-term in the school, project work, holiday time, time retraining after incidents or maternity leave etc. It is calculated by adding the total wages costs (including pension allocations) of all ATCOs and then dividing this by the amount of hours controllers are active in an operational positions.  Costs vs time actually working.

Compare this to Spain where the (alleged) most ‘expensive ATCOs’ in Europe reside you will see the similar cost of €89 per hour.  In Germany this cost is €124 per hour. At UK NATS the cost is €95 per hour. In Switzerland €107 per hour. At the Eurocontrol facility in Maastricht the cost per hour is €132 per hour.

If you look at cost of Airways charges per hour Ireland averaged at €298 per hour. Spain is €576 per hour, Germany €418 per hour, UK NATS the cost is €426 per hour, Switzerland €439 per hour and Maastricht costs are €210 per hour.
In 2007 Ireland accounts for 1.4% of European Air Traffic.  There are 230 operational ATCOs in Ireland which is 1.37% of all ATCOs in Europe (16701 Operational ATCOs).

The IAA, in 2007, had 448 total staff, or 0.79% of the total in of staff employed by European ANSPs (56737).
Irish ATCOs spend an average of 1631 hours per annum controlling traffic; compared to the European average of 1471 hours per annum. If you can grasp on thing from this article; Irish ATCOs are extremely productive and cost-effective.

And finally a quote:  “The global recession, accompanied by high levels of unemployment, hit air travel demand especially hard in 2009 but the declines appear to be bottoming out,” said ATA Chief Executive James May. “Anecdotal evidence suggests a positive revenue trajectory in 2010.”

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Labour Court Discussions Friday 22 Jan 2010

LabourCourt decision

On Friday the Labour Court heard extensive talks about the dispute.

Despite the IAA claiming that this dispute was about a 6% pay claim, to be added to ‘outrageous salaries’ on top of ‘outrageous working conditions’ and ATCOs not willing to contribute to the ‘most generous pension scheme in Ireland’; the discussions in the Court were solely about the dispute about change as alleged by IMPACT all along; that the process of change ie project work required discussion.  That a bone-fide dispute exists between the parties.

The union were seeking those discussions which is why they imposed a ban on members working on projects.  The IAA took IMPACT to the LRC  last Thursday week, in trying to remove the ban; this should have led to full and frank discussion; alas the IAA chose to withdraw from those talks.  The IAA later escalated the dispute by suspending ATCOs refusing to work on the projects, last Tuesday.  The union took immediate action to the suspensions by calling a stop work meeting on the Wednesday.

The stop work last Wednesday was about restoring the suspended ATCOs to the payroll.  The claims made by the IAA that it was about something else were proven false in Court.  The Court agreed that this dispute was about change; whether it be ‘normal on-going change’ or ‘significant change’ is the matter still outstanding.

This matter will now be dealt with by the Labour Court on Tuesday 26 Jan in the am.  This will be binding arbitration.  This is the first time that the IAA has agreed to be bound by the Labour Court in over 10 years.  This doesn’t mean that IMPACT representing the ATCOs will automatically win; far from it. But we will have our day in Court, which is all we ever wanted.

The Labour Court will hear the 6% T16 Claim on Tuesday 26 in the pm as originally scheduled in August 09.  See, this stop work action wasn’t about a pay claim. The independent LRC appointed assessor has already found that it can be paid, every worker at the IAA expects it will be paid and back dated.

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Profits – schmofits

Over the past 5 years the IAA has reported huge annual profits.

In recent times the IAA has never recorded less than 12M annual after tax profit totalling over the last five reports to be no less than 66.5M.

There is reportedly a crisis with the pension fund. Why? In 2007 the total reported net liabilities of the pension fund were just over 56M.

The company recently published that the pension fund is some 248M in debt.  200M extra in debt in 2 years, whilst still running a profit, is this an accounting trick? Who is to blame, are they still employed? There should be a national enquiry to find out who is responsible.  She/Him/they and their management team should all be sacked if it’s true that they squandered 200M in just 2 years; surely the buck stops with the CEO?

CEO – he should go, come on sing with me now, CEO – he should go!

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