Taking the strain
Ingo Marowsky explains how a major new research project will help win recognition for the stress and fatigue suffered by aviation workers worldwide
Trade unions attending an international ITF conference on aviation economics in London in 2005 agreed that most of their members’ concerns boiled down to one or two key issues. Among the post-liberalisation effects of increasing international competition, mergers, alliances and cost-efficiency strategies, they identified emotional stress and fatigue as major problems for their members, and asked the ITF to tackle them as a priority.
For cabin crew, stress and fatigue problems are exacerbated by the frequent experience of changing of time zones. For ground staff and air traffic services alike, an increasing number of flights means shifts run over 24 hours. Ground staff may be literally overloaded with baggage to handle. Air traffic services staff have many more planes to monitor as part of their crucial safety function.
The ITF is now committed to undertaking research into the causes of emotional stress and fatigue for all three of these very different groups. The findings will form the basis for a united campaign to benefit all aviation workers.
Working in consultation with a specialist researcher and in cooperation with numerous distinguished universities worldwide, we will be sending out questionnaires, running focus groups with ground staff, air traffic services and cabin crew representatives, and conducting interviews at selected ITF events. The first workshops were held in Malta in May 2006.
Many unions are already involved in studying the trends, but for the ITF research programme to result in useful data for global campaigning, it will be crucial that all affiliates pool their resources by taking part.
The study is expected to take around 12 months. Its findings and recommendations will be presented at international ITF events and circulated.
Campaign planning
The results of the research will be used to design a campaign, to be jointly carried forward by all affiliates and involving an action day or week plus related activities.
Many unions are already involved in national activities to address the problems of stress and fatigue. The ITF campaign will aim to support those activities and encourage them to be taken up in more countries. We would also expect national campaigns to benefit from the effects of major worldwide coordinated actions.
Our objective will be to show that the problems of stress and fatigue are not confined to one country or group of countries. They are experienced in all countries, in all parts of the world and they will require solutions, such as international minimum standards, to be found at the relevant international level.
The targets for campaign action will include safety regulators, who regulate maximum duty times for some groups of employees. Governments will be pressed to close legal loopholes and make sure that their law enforcement and judicial agencies are able to monitor the application of time limitations, and to respond effectively in cases where legal limits are breached.
Airlines, handling agents, airport companies and air traffic service providers – all will be lobbied to improve their practices and procedures. Finally and crucially, the public will be the target of awareness-raising initiatives – ultimately they, as airline passengers, are potential victims of fatigue related incidents.
Our campaign will have succeeded if it can bring about preventive policies by governments and airlines aimed at minimising the risks of fatigue. These would need to include the provision of training for relevant employees in managing and preventing fatigue, and post-incident support for staff who have suffered fatigue-related trauma. Sanctions would need to be enforceable against companies or individuals who breach regulations that protect workers from stress or fatigue.
As a result of the campaign, aviation unions should expect to see a higher level of public awareness of the problems of stress and fatigue and thus, experience ongoing support from passengers.
The potential value of an overall campaign for aviation workers can be demonstrated by the success of the “Air Rage” campaign from 2000, which brought about key regulations to protect airline staff from the dangers posed by unruly passengers. We will also draw on the experience of the ITF’s road transport campaign against unregulated working, Fatigue Kills, which is now in its tenth year.
Our hope is that this campaign will lead to global and national level policy changes, agreed by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), IATA (International Air Transport Association), ACI (Airport Council International), CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation), individual airlines, airport management authorities and, crucially, ITF affiliates.
Ingo Marowsky is ITF civil aviation section secretary.
