20 Air Traffic Services staff resigned within 12 months

Jan 14, 2024 News

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…at least a dozen more expected to join their colleagues overseas

Kaieteur News – As Guyanese continue to search for greener pastures overseas, at least twenty staff members attached to the Air Traffic Services of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) resigned from their posts within the past 12 months.

At the same time, the GCAA is likely to lose additional air traffic staff, as many are eyeing opportunities overseas, with the aim of joining their colleagues.

Currently, the Cayman Islands aviation body is expanding its airport operations and as much as 12 positions are expected to be filled there. Given the current atmosphere at the control tower at Timehri, Guyanese air traffic controllers are eyeing the posts.

When contacted for a comment on Saturday, Director General of the GCAA, Lt. Col. Egbert Field said he has to obtain “the entire background” of the issue before offering a comment.

When pressed further on if he is aware that staff are leaving the aviation body, he said in any organisation there are “individuals who for one reason or the other would tend to leave” either for a higher salary or a change of career, among other reasons. He said he does not have the figures as regards how many employees have resigned from the tower.

Air Traffic Services play a critical role in the operations of flights within the airspace, providing safe transit for aircraft within the airspace. The service rakes in millions for Guyana annually.

Training of staff takes several months and recruits undergo rigorous hours of study, with no room for mistakes. In addition, staff undergo training to advance in various levels of the profession. It is against this backdrop that the air traffic staff believe their concerns are being ignored and/or taken for granted by the hierarchy of the GCAA.

List of resignations

The list of resignations from the tower at Timehri falls under the Air Navigation Services (ANS) department of the GCAA.

In addition to air traffic controllers, the list also includes ATC assistants and aeronautical information services (AIS) officers. As recent as December, the GCAA’s supervisor of the AIS department at the tower at Timehri resigned to take up a new job in the Cayman Islands.

Reports are that while some of the people who resigned are pursuing new career paths, most of those who resigned have taken up new jobs with the civil aviation bodies in Caribbean islands leaving a huge void in the operation at the tower.

“Most of those who resigned worked at the tower in Timehri,” a former staff member related last week, noting that the controllers and other air traffic staff believe their skills and contribution to the operations of the GCAA are not appreciated, or respected by management or the administrators of the aviation body.

Earlier this year, the GCAA published advertisements for people to fill the vacant positions of Air Traffic Control Assistants as well as Aeronautical Information Management Officers, roles which have left vacant at the control tower at Timehi. Current employees at the tower related that the resignations are taking a toll on the operations there.

They complained that they “are stretched,” adding that the facility, which provides service to aircraft on the ground and in the air, is operating below its full complement. This has resulted in controllers working “a lot of overtime,” a situation which can lead to fatigue, given the critical nature of the job.

Staff underpaid

One of the main reasons behind the resignations, former and current ATC staff told this publication, is tied to the staff at the tower being underpaid. According to former employees, an air traffic controller who resigned last year was paid a gross salary of $300,000 monthly. In the Cayman Islands, the controllers who took up jobs there are paid a minimum salary of $1.1M.

Kaieteur News was told that the former supervisor of the AIS department at the tower was being paid around $260,000 monthly; he is paid more than five times that amount in his new role overseas.

Complaints fell on deaf ears

It was noted by staff members that annual appraisals which are conducted on staff at the tower have been ignored by the GCAA’s management for years. However, their colleagues at the body’s head office are promoted regularly and their salaries also increase incrementally based on appraisals.

Reports are that the issues and concerns of the ATC staff were raised with Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill when he visited the tower to partake in International Civil Aviation Day celebrations back in December 2021.

“We told the minister that we are the ones who are doing the work and that we are not being paid properly, he acknowledged it but nothing is being done,” a source related. In addition, the concerns of the staff were raised with the directorate of the GCAA.

The staff members questioned what plans the administration of the aviation body had in place to address staff retention. “They made a lot of promises. We told them you can promote people because we have lots of vacancies at Timehri, increase our salaries and allowances,” another source said.

Last November, a senior official of the GCAA was expected to provide staff with a feedback on promises made to address staff retention. To date management has said nothing to the staff.

Head office staff favoured

One of the biting issues which has been affecting staff members at the tower is related to the treatment meted out to them by the GCAA’s administration in the city. They believe that the staff members at the aviation body’s headquarters are “favoured” and it was noted that those personnel are frequently offered training opportunities overseas.

They noted that aviation inspectors who are based at the body’s head office travel out of Guyana as much as thrice annually to pursue training opportunities . On the other hand, the air traffic controllers and other ATC staff at Timehri are most times confined to virtual training here.

In the past, air traffic controllers who are qualified enough to advance their careers, could have applied to fill vacant positions at the GCAA headquarters. That was ground to a screeching halt and according to a former controller; those roles are sometimes filled by overseas applicants, some of whom resign to pursue other jobs here.

“We have the staff right here who can fill those positions, yet they said we cannot apply,” a former staff member related. “They don’t want us to work in head office although we the controllers bringing in the revenue for the GCAA, we are the ones who are doing the work,” a former staff member noted.

In addition, the controllers at Timehri noted too that the employees who are hired to work in the aviation body’s head office are paid “super salaries,” which are sometimes higher than that earned by controllers, who are highly skilled, technical personnel.

Lack of basic amenities

While concerns about better pay are aplenty, the staff at the tower told this publication that there are basic issues which they believe the government should address. “There was a time when to get simple things like Lysol, we would get that at Timehri. Not now, but if you go into the head office on High Street, you can find all of those things in all the washrooms,” a former staff member told this publication.

In recent weeks, the affected employees noted that if their concerns are not addressed by the authorities, it may lead to industrial action which would affect the operations of the GCAA as well as flights across Guyana’s airspace. They are calling on President Irfaan Ali to intervene and address their plight.

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• Air Traffic Services, colleagues, Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Lt. Col. Egbert Field, resigned, staff

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