NATCA Bookshelf

STAFFING CRISIS continued Even increased hiring in 2015 and 2016 did not make up for the attrition experienced from 2013 through 2016. As a result, the FAA remains unable to adequately staff many facilities. New hires who are admitted into the Academy beginning in June 2017 require two to four years of training to become fully trained and capable of separating traffic on their own. Fully certified air traffic controllers (CPCs) must train these new hires, often taking those controllers away from their primary job of separating traffic. Thus, facilities that are already at critical staffing levels (defined as requiring overtime and six-day weeks to fully staff all positions) are facing a dire situation, as some retirement-eligible controllers begin to retire, and those left on the job begin the time-intensive process of training Academy graduates. The FAA's 2016 CWP, which is the most current version available, is problematic for a number of reasons and is another example of how the FAA's bureaucracy is negatively affecting operational staffing. In particular, the CWP ignores the staffing targets that NATCA jointly developed with the FAA's Air Traffic Organization to meet the agency's operational needs. The CWP also relies on actual on-board "headcount" staffing numbers used by FAA Financial Services, which lump together CPCs, with CPC-ITs (previously certified controllers who reenter training due to a transfer to another facility) and developmental stage trainees. These issues, in addition to others, render the CWP inaccurate and misleading. Additional staffing concerns are as follows: • Reduced Capacity: A further staffing reduction could have a detrimental and immediate effect on capacity, meaning fewer planes in the sky and greater potential for delays. • Deployment of NextGen: Understaffing hinders facilities throughout the NAS from deploying and training for NextGen programs, procedures, and equipment. • Overtime: Critically-understaffed facilities require controllers to work mandatory overtime to provide adequate coverage of all needed positions. Some facilities may lack sufficient staffing — even with mandatory overtime and extended work weeks — to open all positions. • Fatigue: These extended workdays and workweeks can lead to significant fatigue problems for the workforce. The National Transportation Safety Board has identified fatigue as one of its highest priority safety concerns. Although NATCA, the FAA, and PASS have worked together to develop a fatigue awareness and education campaign called "Fully Charged," which is part of the collaborative Foundations of Professionalism program, the only long-term solution is sufficient staffing. NiW Today n i w . n a t c a . n e t 44

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