SOAR, complaints and choosing the right pathway
Gliding Australia wants members to report safety occurrences. We need pilots, instructors, tow pilots and clubs to tell us when something has gone wrong, nearly gone wrong, or when they identify an operational hazard. That information is important. It allows us to identify trends, understand why occurrences happen and, most important, try to prevent them happening again.
But there is another side to maintaining a healthy reporting culture. We also need to make sure that our safety reporting system is, in fact, used for safety reporting. SOAR should not become a complaints system or a means of pursuing a disagreement with another member.
SOAR is Gliding Australia's operational occurrence reporting system. It is there for accidents, incidents, near misses and other operational occurrences or circumstances from which we may be able to learn something. That could include an airspace infringement, separation issue, aerotow occurrence, procedural error, equipment problem or an event where the outcome could easily have been much more serious.
Sometimes, the most useful reports are those where nothing was damaged and nobody was hurt.
What happened, why did it happen, and what can we learn from it?
When a safety report becomes a complaint
The distinction is not always clear. A member may genuinely believe that another pilot, instructor or club official has acted unsafely. If there has been an operational occurrence or an identifiable aviation safety concern, that may quite properly result in a SOAR report.
But not every disagreement is a safety occurrence.
Personality conflicts, dissatisfaction with club decisions, disputes between members, grievances about how somebody has been treated and allegations where the primary objective is disciplinary action are generally complaints rather than safety reports.
Gliding Australia has separate processes for dealing with those matters.
The distinction matters because safety reporting depends heavily on trust.
Pilots must be prepared to report their own mistakes. Instructors need to be able to discuss errors openly. Clubs need to tell members when something has gone wrong.
If people begin to believe that a safety reporting system is routinely being used against individuals as part of personal disputes, they may become reluctant to report. That damages the reporting culture we are trying to build.
DON'T WEAPONISE SOAR
SOAR should never be used primarily to strengthen a complaint, discredit another member, continue a personal dispute or simply create a record against somebody. That doesn't mean unsafe behaviour should go unreported. If a genuine aviation safety issue exists, report it. The distinction is the purpose and substance of the report.
Before submitting a SOAR, ask: What is the aviation safety issue, and what could the gliding community learn from this report? Could this happen to another pilot or member?
If there is a clear answer, SOAR may well be the right pathway.
If the answer is principally about somebody's behaviour towards you, a disagreement, a club decision or something you want another person disciplined for, the complaints process is likely to be the more appropriate pathway.
TRY TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS WHERE THEY OCCUR
Not every disagreement needs to become a formal complaint. Gliding Australia's guidance on informal complaints recognises that less serious matters can often be resolved by providing additional information, talking with the person concerned, involving an appropriate club officer or bringing the people involved together for an informal discussion.
Sometimes a five-minute conversation resolves something that could otherwise occupy many people for weeks.
Where it is reasonable and appropriate, members should consider talking with the person concerned or raising the matter with their CFI, Club Safety Officer, President or another appropriate club officer.
The emphasis should be on understanding the problem and finding a solution rather than assigning blame.
But this is not an absolute rule. There are circumstances where asking somebody to resolve a matter directly would be inappropriate.
SOME COMPLAINTS NEED TO GO FURTHER
Gliding Australia's formal complaint process recognises that some matters are too serious for informal resolution.
These can include unlawful behaviour, repeated or entrenched behaviour, significant power imbalances, matters affecting several people or circumstances where formal disciplinary action may be appropriate. A complaint may also need to move beyond the club where there is a conflict of interest, the club does not have the necessary independence or expertise, attempts at local resolution have failed, or the matter is more serious than originally understood. Serious matters involving possible criminal behaviour, harm to a child or matters requiring external investigation may need to be referred directly to an appropriate external authority.
Where it is reasonable, appropriate and safe, try to sort the issue out at club level first
SOMETIMES IT IS BOTH
There will also be occasions where the same event creates both a safety issue and a complaint. Suppose an operational occurrence takes place and there are also allegations about the conduct of one of the people involved. The occurrence may properly require a SOAR report. The conduct issue may separately require consideration under the complaints process. There is nothing wrong with both processes operating where they are genuinely required. What is important is that we do not confuse them. SOAR examines the safety occurrence and what can be learned from it.
The complaints process deals with the complaint and, where appropriate, the conduct of the people involved.
Keeping those functions separate helps protect procedural fairness as well as the integrity of our safety reporting system.
WHAT ABOUT REPCON?
There is a useful parallel in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's REPCON confidential reporting scheme. REPCON provides a confidential avenue for reporting aviation safety concerns. It may be particularly relevant where someone believes a safety concern will not be properly addressed through an organisation's normal safety management processes, or where they fear repercussions from reporting internally.
Importantly, REPCON is a safety reporting system.
The ATSB considers whether the motivation for a report is aviation safety. REPCON is not intended as a mechanism for damaging another person, pursuing an unrelated dispute or determining blame or liability. That is broadly the same distinction we need to preserve with SOAR.
REPCON also does not replace mandatory aviation occurrence reporting requirements.
WHich pathway should I use?
* Operational occurrence or identifiable aviation safety issue? Use SOAR.
* Disagreement, grievance, interpersonal or behaviour issue? Use the appropriate club or GAus complaints process.
* Relatively minor issue that can reasonably be resolved locally? Talk to the person or an appropriate club officer.
* Serious matter, conflict of interest, or something that cannot reasonably be resolved within the club? Use the appropriate formal complaint..
* Genuine aviation safety concern where confidentiality is important or normal aviation safety channels cannot reasonably deal with it? REPCON may be appropriate. Occasionally, more than one pathway will be necessary.
PROTECTING OUR REPORTING CULTURE
Gliding Australia would rather receive a genuine safety report than have an important occurrence go unreported.
Nobody should read this article as a reason not to submit a SOAR when there is a genuine safety concern.
But we also need to protect SOAR from becoming another mechanism for resolving disputes between members.
A strong safety culture requires people to be willing to talk about mistakes, report hazards and tell us when things have gone wrong. It also requires reports to be considered fairly and for complaints to be handled through processes designed to deal with complaints.
Report safety matters as safety matters.
Deal with complaints as complaints.
Resolve issues at the lowest appropriate level where it is reasonable and safe to do so.
Don't weaponise the safety reporting system.
Dave Boulter
executive manager operations
