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Sydney-based air traffic controllers on average took the most sick leave of any major gateway in Australia, according to Airservices figures.
In data obtained by The Australian under freedom of information laws, Sydney ATCs took an average of 17 days of sick leave in the year ending 30 June, compared to Brisbane at 13.5, Melbourne at 12.8, and Perth at 8.45; across the whole of Airservices, the average was 14.6 days per person.
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According to Scott Nugent, president of air traffic controllers’ union Civil Air, ATCs are entitled to unlimited sick leave in a given year, as they are not allowed to come to work while unwell.
“Air traffic controllers must not work by law when sick or unfit for duty or fatigued. That’s not a recommendation – that is the civil aviation safety regulation and I think that’s what the public would expect,” he told The Australian.
“It’s understandable that Sydney-based controllers had a slightly higher rate of sick leave days than those in other areas, given the ongoing understaffing issues which have many of the controllers doing 10 days on, one day off.
“That sort of roster is not sustainable and is taking a toll on controllers’ health.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Airservices said the air navigation service provider has “no fixed quantitative measure for what is considered ‘reasonable’ [amounts of sick leave], as this is assessed on a case-by-case basis according to individual circumstances”.
“Airservices has an unplanned leave management process in place to manage sick leave, which includes a specific review point when an employee has taken 15 days of sick leave in a 12-month period,” the spokesperson said.
“Management of sick leave and balancing roster resilience is essential to delivery of resilient ATC services for industry.
“We are currently focussed on mitigating the impacts of both short-term and long-term sick leave for our air traffic controllers in Sydney through additional measures, such as voluntary on call rostered shifts, to maintain service resilience.”
Airservices deputy chief Peter Curran last week told a Senate committee that 49 ATCs are employed in Sydney, with 41 required to be available for rostering; however, “long term unavailability medical issues” led to eight or nine of these controllers being unavailable last Friday, sparking delays.
“When we have a bit of short-term sickness like we had last night, it makes it very difficult to recover,” he said.
Curran also told the committee that Airservices is looking to increase its ATC workforce from 1100 to 1200 by July 2028; 914 of these are presently available to work as ATCs, more than the 890 he said are needed.
Airservices is reportedly shuffling controllers between Kingsford Smith and Western Sydney Airports as required, with the potential for Sydney’s tower to be temporarily closed during curfew hours from 1 November and freight flights with curfew exemptions rerouted to WSI.
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