SAFETY EVENTS REPORTING AND REVIEW

The Parties shall apply the following provisions to instances in which a safety event occurs or is believed to have occurred, to safety problems/initiatives, and to govern the administration of the ATO Quality Assurance Program, ATO Quality Control, Air Traffic Organization Occurrence Reporting (ATOOR), and Voluntary Safety Reporting Programs (VSRP).

For the purposes of the ATSAP MOU, dated March 27, 2008, an operational “error” and/or “deviation” shall be defined as:

a. A Loss of required separation;

b. An aircraft lands or departs on a runway closed to aircraft operations after receiving air traffic authorization;

c. An aircraft lands or departs on a runway closed to aircraft operations, at an uncontrolled airport and it was determined that a NOTAM regarding the runway closure was not issued to the pilot as required;

d. Less than the applicable separation minima existed between an aircraft and adjacent airspace without prior approval;

e. An aircraft penetrated airspace that was delegated to another position of operation or another facility without prior coordination and approval;

f. An aircraft penetrated airspace that was delegated to another position of operation or another facility at an altitude or route contrary to the altitude or route requested and approved in direct coordination or as specified in a letter of agreement (LOA) pre- coordination, or internal procedure;

g. An aircraft is either positioned and/or routed contrary to that which was coordinated individually or; as specified in a LOA/directive between positions of operation in either the same or a different facility; and/or

h. An aircraft, vehicle, equipment, or personnel encroached upon a landing area that was delegated to another position of operation without prior coordination and approval.

Upon request, an employee who experiences any of these events shall be removed from an operational position as soon as operationally possible.

When the Agency becomes aware of any loss of standard separation of less than sixty-six percent (66%), a runway incursion, and an employee requests to be relieved from an operational position or the Agency has elected to relieve an employee from an operational position due to an occurrence, the Principal Facility Representative or his/her designee shall be notified.

Employee(s) last providing ATC services to an aircraft involved in a fatal accident shall be relieved from operational position as soon as operationally feasible and must remain relieved from operational duties until the performance review portion of a Covered Event Review (CER), as defined in JO 7210.634, and associated training, if assigned, is completed.

The Principal Facility Representative, or his/her designee, will be afforded the opportunity to be present for any interview of an employee conducted by the Agency as the result of a Mandatory Occurrence Report (MOR) or Electronic Occurrence Report (EOR). By mutual consent of the Agency, employee(s), and the Union, interviews may be accomplished by telephone. The employee and his/her Union representative shall be permitted to review all available information prior to the interview.

Employees shall be on duty time and the Union representative shall be granted official time to participate in these proceedings.

The Agency shall provide the Principal Facility Representative, or his/her designee, with the names of all employees to be interviewed. The Agency shall collaborate with the Principal Facility Representative, or his/her designee, to establish an interview schedule. No changes to an employee’s schedule may occur without the consent of the employee.

Signed employee statements will only be required in the event of a pilot deviation.

In the event that an employee is not permitted to return to operational duty following a reported occurrence, the Air Traffic Manager, upon request of the employee, shall provide a written explanation of the reason for such action within twenty-four (24) hours following the occurrence.

If the Agency conducts a performance discussion related to an EOR and/or MOR, or determines that a review is warranted through the QA Risk Analysis Process (RAP) or a QC Service Review, the following provisions apply:

a. Involved employee(s) shall be notified as soon as possible that a review was conducted. This notification shall not occur while employees are working a control position.

b. The Agency shall offer and afford sufficient duty time to complete an ATSAP report. The time to file an ATSAP report should occur as soon as operationally possible, but need not occur during the same duty day. Normal ATSAP timelines apply to these submissions; timeliness will be based on the actual allocation of duty time. Employees that have already filed an ATSAP report but request to add additional information to their report shall be provided time under this Section.

c. Employees shall be permitted to review the performance documentation and recorded data concerning the occurrence prior to submitting an ATSAP report.

QC Service Reviews shall be conducted outside of the operating quarters. The Principal Facility Representative, or his/her designee, shall be afforded the opportunity to participate in these proceedings. QC Service Reviews will be conducted in a collaborative manner and any findings of the reviews will, when practicable, be jointly developed.

The Union, at the appropriate level, shall have the opportunity to provide a response to a request for information regarding a safety event or safety problem. The Agency will work with the Union in a pre- decisional, collaborative manner in developing a response to a Corrective Action Request (CAR). If the Parties cannot achieve a consensus on a resolution, they are free to pursue traditional processes for resolution.

The principles and processes contained within Article 51 of this Agreement shall be utilized for a Compliance Verification (CV), Quality Control Check (QCC) or Quality Control Validation (QCV), regardless of the level at which the activity is conducted.

Information derived from a CV, QCC, QCV, or QA Risk Analysis Panel (RAP) will only be used to identify systemic or organizational safety issues. This information may not be attributed to or identify an individual employee.

Upon request, the Union, at the appropriate level, shall be given an entire copy of any report generated during a Quality Assurance or Quality Control initiative.

The administration of VSRP, ATO Quality Assurance Program (QAP), ATO Occurrence Reporting (ATOOR), and ATO Quality Control (QC) shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions contained within JO 7200.20, JO 7210.632, JO 7210.633, and JO 7210.634.

Upon request, and subject to staffing and workload, employees shall be afforded sufficient duty time to complete an ATSAP report.

New employees shall be trained on the provisions of JO 7200.20 and the ATSAP MOU within thirty (30) days of assignment to a facility, or as otherwise agreed to by the Parties at the local level. Training requirements and curriculum shall be jointly developed by the Parties at the national level.

Loss of standard separation alert data will be available at the local facility level; however, the data shall not be accessed in the operating quarters and, if possible, access to the data shall be restricted from those locations. Audio and/or visual loss of standard separation detection system terminals shall not be placed inside facility operating quarters. This requirement does not apply to collision warning systems (e.g. conflict alert, AMASS alarms).

The collection and analysis of safety data shall ensure the confidentiality of bargaining unit employees. Except as required by law, the Agency shall ensure that all data collected is sanitized of all personally identifiable information prior to release outside the Agency.

Union representatives shall be provided an access level for QC and safety data (e.g. EOR/MOR information, QC Service Reviews) in CEDAR equal to that of their Agency counterpart(s).

Controllers-in-Charge, Traffic Management Specialists/Coordinators-in-Charge, and NOTAM Specialists-in-Charge shall not be required to make any electronic entries into CEDAR until they have received training.

The Union at the national level shall be provided RAP determinations at the same interval as the Agency.