Trouble with the RAN

From today's Melbourne Age:


Navy closes for Christmas, families first in new year

Inaction stations … a navy ship moored at Garden Island yesterday. The stand-down period will run from December 3 to February 3.

Cynthia Banham Diplomatic Editor
November 18, 2008

NAVY chiefs battling a staffing crisis have taken the unprecedented step of ordering a two-month shutdown over Christmas, and have told personnel with child-care problems that they can work from home.

The navy has also ordered all ships not deployed on operations home for Christmas to try to combat a 2020 shortfall in trained personnel.
In addition, the number of sailors forced to stay on board ships docked in their home port on "duty watch" as sentries will be reduced from previous levels of 15 to 20 people to a skeleton staff.

Instead sensors and alarms will be used to guard the ships, with the ultimate aim being to do away with the need for any people at all.
Navy chiefs say the drastic measures are part of a plan to combat recruitment problems by creating a more family-friendly environment.

The stand-down period will run from December 3 to February 3, and will be a permanent arrangement every year.

This Christmas 500 navy personnel will remain deployed overseas and in waters north of Australia. If an emergency occurs, other personnel will be ordered back to work.

But thousands of sailors who might previously have been deployed on ships over December and January on exercises or training activities will not be this year, and will be able to take longer than usual holidays.

The extraordinary measures are a part of an initiative called "New Generation Navy" aimed at attracting and retaining more staff by changing the culture of the navy and improving the work-life balance of personnel.

The navy loses 11 per cent of its workforce every year and last financial year only achieved 73 per cent of its full-time recruitment targets.

The Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Russ Crane, told the Herald "this program is about, where I can, providing an opportunity for our people to have a good break.
"This is about generating some space and taking advantage of an opportunity for [personnel] to be able to have a bit of time to spend with their families at home, a bit of time to spend with their mates." He added: "It's about getting a culture in place that's about working smarter not harder, and I think we owe that to our people. "By doing that I believe we can significantly reduce some of the separation rates we're seeing at the moment."

Leading Seaman Christine van Lieshout is a mother of three whose husband is also in the navy. She believes the new Christmas arrangements will be "fantastic".

A reservist at navy headquarters at Russell in Canberra, Leading Seaman van Lieshout recalls spending Christmas in 2003 alone with her children because her husband, a chief petty officer, was on deployment to Christmas Island. "That was pretty horrible," she said. "We were basically watching everyone else with their families … we received a phone call late in the afternoon from him and that was Christmas." This year Leading Seaman van Lieshout and her husband, Rodney, will both go on leave on December 19, and will spend the holidays with their children Daniel, 16, Ashley, 11, and Stephanie, 13.
Her husband has just returned from a six-month deployment in the Gulf, during which time he missed his children's birthdays, Father's Day and a confirmation. "The children have not had an opportunity to see their dad very much, so having the opportunity to have Rodney home a lot longer is fantastic because it gives them bonding time and takes a bit of pressure off me." She said the initiatives were "fantastic for a lot of people".

[designeraccd]

Good grief! IMhO, grief is what policies like this will lead to for a MILITARY service. I can think of many countries that do not like the West, that must be very...uhh...amused and encouraged by this.

I can't say I enjoyed pulling duty on Christmas Eve 1968 but I did it as that was part of life in the USMC, and I signed up for that service...voluntarily.

DFO

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Yesterday morning I watched as HMAS Anzac, HMAS Perth, HMAS Sydney, HMAS Melbourne, a Collins class submarine, and HMNZS Te Kaha sailed for ten days of exercises off the Western Australian coast. They need the rest after the RAN's Sea Training Group is done with them!

But I must say the article is a storm in a teacup anyway. The RAN has, for many years, conducted a standdown over the festive season, with only the northern coastal patrols continuing. It is not unusual to see HMAS Stirling (Fleet Base West) packed with warships during this time.

The only difference I see is that they have extended the standown by three weeks, which will affect the training and deployment schedule.

But if the sailors get more time off, good for them!

It will also give the sailor's wives time to cope with the collapse of the ABC child centres.

[mik43]

I was interested to read that the RAN are closing down for Christmas and the New Year, with matelots being given 6 to 8 weeks off over the festive period. This of course means that all ships would be tied up alongside the wall!!! So the best time to carry out a sea borne invasion of Australia would be during that period. Even Gordon Brown couldn't come up with one like that - yet!!!
Mik - tongue slightly, ever so slightly, in cheek!!

[astraltrader]

Mik - as this topic had already been covered I have moved your post here.

[John Odom]

Even as a civillian I have worked many Christmases. Should we not expect more of the Millitary? Remember the Yom Kippur war.

Still recovering from the news that our navy is to have an extended holiday - now it seems so also is the RAAF.

The Newcastle airport control tower is to be closed down over Xmas as the air controllers - RAAF personnel - will be on holiday.

This incredible news has been greeted with disbelief. Dick Smith has threatened legal action over it.