Panel
Jeff Richards, Fatigue Safety Steering Committee,NATCA
Garth Koleszar, Professional Standards Representative, NATCA
Steve Hansen, Chairman, National Safety Committee, NATCA
Joseph Teixeira, Vice President of Safety & Technical Training, ATO
Bob Jones, District Manager, New England Terminal Ops, ATO
Tom Boland III, Asst District Manager, Southern Skies District, ATO
We can contribute to a professional culture be utilizing the joint programs (ATSAP, Fully Charged, Turn Off/Tune In, Pro Standards) laid out before us. The growth of our safety culture and advancement is dependent on a professional workforce.
In an effort to help with the Turn Off/Tune In initiative charging stations are starting to be installed infacilities where the work force can place and charge devices prior to entering the control room and have helped with compliance of no devices on the floor.
“I challenge the Agency to get these charging stations into the facilities, it really helps.”
ATSAP was designed as a means to get feedback on issues in our job without treating personel badly for self identifying. It is not a "Get out of jail free card". Anyone that does abuse the process will eventually get caught. ATSAP has greatly assisted in molding a safer aviation system due to the majority of people using it as intended.
“ATSAP asks you to identify where the problem is and how to fix it.”
ATSAP helped identify a need to develope something to address the fatigue. The Fully Charged program is the result of that need and is helping us mitigate fatigue through education and awareness.
A difficulty in getting these programs to be successful is the effectiveess of education. If people are still asking "What is Fully Charged?" than they realize that they need to remedy that through new ideas. Touring facilities with workshops, apps, etc. are all on the horizon in an effort to educate.
Professional Standards should not be viewed as NATCA doing managements job. It's our profession and we should own and mold it. Pro Standards gives us that opportunity.
There are tangible means to measure the success of these programs by how many cases were addressed and solved but also by surveys that they send out to the workforce to see if they are affecting a culture change within our profession.
Historically, about 70% of the Pro Standards cases are initiated by management. The culture of "not snitching" within the BUE workforce is something that the Pro Standards group would like to change to better utilize the program.
“Because we haven’t broken through the cultural barrier, there is a hesitancy to using Profesional Standards, that’s unfortunate.”