Air traffic controller scheduling changes coming

[SoCalDem]

Good news...BUT.. going from 8 to 9 hours off between shifts assumes that you will go home and immediately sleep.. If you work 9-5 (who does that anymore?) , you have SIXTEEN hours between shift..

There ARE day people and night people, and it makes a lot more sense to me to allow people to bid on their hours based on their "awake time" instead of having bosses tell people they must adjust their own circadian clock (almost impossible to do).. Or they could hire people specifically for a night shift (people whose clocks agree with that, would be most likely to apply), pay a premium for that shift, and rotate on off with a day in between shifts so they can rest.. People whose bodies are most agreeable to night work often do not sleep at prescribed times, so having a day on and a day off seems fair.


http://www.ajc.com/news/air-traffic-controller-scheduling-913244.html?cxtype=rss_news

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New scheduling rules for air traffic controllers aimed at reducing fatigue on the job will be rolled out Monday, beginning in Atlanta.


Randy Babbitt, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, will visit control tower staff at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and FAA control facilities in Fayette and Henry counties, to kick off a nationwide tour of briefings that will unveil the new guidelines for overnight staffing. Extending hours between shifts and and restricting night-time schedule swapping are among the changes. The move comes as a fifth air traffic controller in a month was reported asleep on duty: this time early Saturday morning, during a midnight shift at a regional radar facility in Miami that monitors high-altitude flights.

snip

“We expect controllers to come to work rested and ready to work and take personal responsibility for safety in the control towers; we have zero tolerance for sleeping on the job,” Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said Sunday in a statement. “Safety is our top priority and we will continue to make whatever changes are necessary.” Already, FAA administrator Randy Babbitt and LaHood had ordered additional air traffic controllers assigned to overnight shifts at 27 airports that operated around the clock with only one controller working late. This came after a controller fell asleep early Wednesday morning at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport and missed guiding in a medical flight. "We are taking important steps today that will make a real difference in fighting air traffic controller fatigue," Babbitt said. “Research shows us that giving people the chance for even an additional one hour of rest during critical periods in a schedule can improve work performance and reduce the potential for fatigue."

The new scheduling rules have already been put in place and will be fully in effect by the end of the week:

* Controllers will now have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts as opposed to as few as eight previously.
* Controllers won't be allowed to swap shifts without at least nine hours off between shifts, and can't switch to an unscheduled midnight shift following a day off.
* FAA managers will schedule their own shifts in a way to ensure greater coverage in the early morning and late-night hours.

snip

[dana_b]

1. I hope this helps

and they may find that they actually need to HIRE more folks to fill in those late shifts. :)

[Brickbat]

2. A nine-hour turaround is not going to help. Proper staffing will.

[SheilaT]

3. When the turnaround is from a day shift to an overnight shift,

there's no way a person will get any sleep at all.

I've worked plenty of turnaround shifts getting off anywhere between 10pm and midnight and coming back in the next day at 6am -- and it was an airline job -- but we had no overnight shifts to staff.

[SoCalDem]

5. This was often a tactic to "encourage" people to quit..where I worked once

People who had "displeased" management, would have their "regular" shifts tweaked , so that they became disgusted and then would ask for a transfer or would quit. It was carefully done so as to not appear deliberate, but to some of us it was hard to miss.. A guy whose wife worked days, and who ALWAYS worked nights, would suddenly start getting some 10-7 shifts, followed by 6Pm to midnight, followed by 1PM to 9PMs...and the formerly usual days off would be tweaked as well, just to mess with his head so much that he would blow up at a supervisor or complain once too often..:(

[SheilaT]

6. Which is one good reason that

people who work shift work should be able to bid those shifts, based on their seniority, rather than managers assigning shifts.

[SoCalDem]

7. There should also be a way for night people to work nights & day people to work days

It's dangerous to fight nature.. Forcing a day person to work nights, is asking for trouble..

Back when places closed at 5 pm and were closed on Sundays, everyone pretty much had some down-time, but that;s not the case anymore.. Humans cannot "evolve" fast enough to adapt to that drastic of a change. We were designed to be safely tucked away snoozing away while the nocturnal predators were wandering about looking for a meal. We evolved to be daylight workers & nighttime sleepers..Modernity is trying to force us to act against nature:(

[bobbolink]

4. This is continuing to blame the victims for what Raygun did.

All of this was predicted, and now that it has come to pass, it is the fault of the workers.

Predictable.