Contingent Arrangements Research Articles

An evaluation of the overjustification effect across multiple contingency arrangements

AbstractThe overjustification effect suggests that external rewards may decrease intrinsically reinforced behaviors; however, this conclusion is often drawn from pre‐ and post‐assessment data. The majority of studies published in this area do not take repeated measures of behavior. In addition, previous research has not distinguished between the use of rewards and reinforcers by demonstrating a reinforcement effect; hence, it is possible that the occurrence of the overjustification effect varies depending on the nature of the stimuli that are used. This study extended previous research by evaluating whether the overjustification effect was relevant to the use of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or both. The effects of verbal praise were also evaluated in relation to the overjustification effect. Results indicated that behavior did not decrease below baseline levels following the contingent delivery of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or verbal praise. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Problems regarding the constitutionalization of multiculturalism: an anthropological perspective

In this article, from an anti-essentialist and anti-primordial view, of normal science in anthropology, argumentation is being developed against an essentialist foundation of multiculturalism, as an imprudent legal transplant and as a mode of developing/survival of ethnocratic professionalizing of ethnicity and the policy of identity, through the example of a symptomatic article 64 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. The Constitution radicalizes multicultural policies, treating ethnic, confessional and other contingent arrangements as natural classes. Treating the cultural-historic categories, for example, ethnicity or confessional (religious) identity, as natural classes in public policies like the Constitution, leads to a situation where the contingent, interactive arrangements in the cultural reality receives an aureole of a given, indifferent and permanent states, which potentially generates and deepens social conflicts which it intends to absorb, forestall or regulate. After referring to the proven comparatively-historic contraindicated aspects of multicultural policies and a shorter analysis of the above mentioned example, the author argues for deepening of the productive interdisciplinary cooperation of professional lawyers, professional anthropologists and other experts in the field of social-humanistic sciences, in a mutual effort for further de-primordialisation and de-essentialisation of public policies in Serbia.

Who Are the Contingent Workers in Federal Government?

To most, federal employment means stable work with good pay, good benefits, long-run job security, and opportunities for promotion from the mail room to upper management. The authors' debunk that notion. The authors' definitively establish the presence of a core/ring structure in federal employment. Core occupations are permanent full-time, year-round stable positions, whereas ring jobs are comparatively unstable work situations: temporary, part-time, and/or for a specified period of time. Federal personnel administrators increasingly use temporary, contract, on-call, and part-time positions to control costs. Even when we control for individual characteristics—educational attainment and years of experience—we find group characteristics—particularly gender—reduce the chances of working in a permanent federal job. Is this an indictment against the federal government's reputation as a model employer? Perhaps. At the very least, the potential for gender disparity in employment outcomes deserves further study. Contingent arrangements at the agency level deserve a closer look too.

Intergenerational Coresidence of Older Adults in Japan: Conditions for Cultural Plasticity

This study investigated individual-level conditions and prefecture-level contextual factors that enable and/or restrict intergenerational coresidence arrangements between older parents and adult children. We implemented multinomial logistic regression within a hierarchical approach to compare traditional and nontraditional styles of intergenerational coresidence arrangements. Individual data (N = 3,565) came from the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging. We supplemented these with information on socioeconomic and welfare characteristics of Japanese prefectures. Whereas the traditional pattern of coresidence was primarily a value-driven arrangement, nontraditional coresidence was both a value-driven and a need-driven arrangement for older parents with limited physical abilities. Relatively strong economic conditions at the prefecture level were enabling factors for coresidence, whereas the greater per capita utilization of local welfare resources had both enabling and inhibiting effects on coresidence arrangements. The differences between the two types of coresidence are consistent with a shift of intergenerational living arrangements in Japan from a preventive arrangement to a contingent arrangement for older parents in need. We suggest that intergenerational family traditions contain a great amount of plasticity to accommodate societal modernization by adapting to the changing cultural and socioeconomic contexts of the society.

Uncertainty of Future Performance: The Impact of Labor Investment and Labor Flexibility

Abstract: Theory suggests that human capital investment decreases in response to an increase in the riskiness of the return on the investment which suggests a link between the uncertainty of future performance and investments in labor. While labor investment has been the subject of numerous academic studies, the notion of labor flexibility is a relatively new research issue and is of fundamental interest due to the rise of contingent labor in our competitive global economy. In this study, we investigate the relations between fixed labor investments, labor flexibility and their impact on future earnings uncertainty while controlling for capital and R& D investment. The empirical analysis compares the relative contributions of current investments in labor, labor flexibility, R&D and PP&E to future earnings variability using a sample of roughly 20,000 firm-year observations from 1970-1999. We perform extensive robustness checks and provide strong results consistent with our predictions that fixed labor investments increase the uncertainty of future earnings. In contrast, labor flexibility reduces uncertainty in future benefits. Our results have implications for management's human capital operating decisions and are consistent with the extraordinary growth in contingent employment arrangements in the United States and abroad.

Regulamentação das cadeias de fornecedores para proteger a saúde e segurança de trabalhadores vulneráveis

Um grande número de pesquisas recentes evidencia que as estratégias de subcontratação de serviços e produtos e a contratação de trabalhadores contingentes, nas chamadas cadeias de fornecedores, afetam os processos de planejamento e tomada de decisão de maneira a solapar seriamente a Segurança e Saúde dos Trabalhadores (SST). Complexas cadeias de fornecedores apresentam um desafio para a ação de regulamentação, pois a responsabilidade legal pela SST está difusa dentre um maior espectro de atores sociais, com mais dificuldades para focalizar os principais tomadores de decisão, e as agências de governo encontram maiores dificuldades logísticas na tentativa de proteger legalmente os trabalhadores contingentes, como os temporários e terceirizados. Em certo número de indústrias, esses problemas têm instigado novas formas de intervenção regulamentadora, incluindo mecanismos para alocar a responsabilidade legal no topo das cadeias de fornecedores, dispositivos de acompanhamento contratual e crescente envolvimento da indústria, dos sindicatos e da comunidade na fiscalização do cumprimento da lei. Depois de descrever os problemas acima referidos, este artigo examina recentes esforços para regulamentar as cadeias de fornecedores para salvaguardar a SST no Reino Unido e na Austrália.

The Contingent Employee Benefits Problem

In the contemporary American workplace, benefits are a critical a component of overall compensation. American workers look to their employers for such non-salary items as retirement programs, health insurance, sick pay, and paid vacations. However, the costs of such benefits have been rising rapidly and employers have sought ways to avoid paying them. Increasingly, employers have been using various techniques to create a pool of contingent workers who, even if they work side-by-side with the employer's traditional employees, nevertheless receive none of the benefits made available to members of the regular workforce. These contingent employee arrangements include utilizing contract workers, leased staff, and temporary workers hired from agencies such as Manpower. In some instances courts have found that employer contingent workforce arrangements have failed to meet the legal hurdles required for exemption from the obligation to provide workplace benefits, but these decisions do no more than to guide employers in how to properly structure workplace relationships in order to meet their objectives. This article explores the limits of the major court decisions that have restricted the ability of employers to exclude contingent workers from access to benefits made available to regular employees and suggests legislative approaches that should be pursued.

The role of the reflexive conditioned motivating operation (CMO-R) during discrete trial instruction of children with autism.

Comprehensive intensive treatment based upon the application of behavior analytic principles has proven to be an effective form of intervention for children with autism (Green, 1996). Several comparative studies have demonstrated the superiority of behavior analytic programs over other approaches to autism treatment or differing levels of intensities of services (Birnbrauer & Leach, 1993; Cohen, Amerine-Dickens, & Smith, 2006; Eikseth, Smith, Jahr, & Eldevik, 2002, 2007; Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green, & Stanislaw, 2005; Lovaas, 1987; Sallows & Graupner, 2005; Remington et al. , in press; Smith, Groen, & Wynne, 2000). This research has provided clear evidence that intensive intervention guided by behavior analytic principles can produce substantial benefits for children with a disorder that was once thought to be resistant to all forms of treatment. There are reports of children with autism entering regular education classrooms, achieving substantial cognitive gains and developing age appropriate social skills after many years of intensive behavioral intervention (Lovaas, 1987). Recently, evidence has been gathered that suggests that school, community, and home applications of intensive behavioral intervention can be equally successful (Eikseth et al. , 2002; Howard et al. , 2005). At least five published manuals (Leaf & McEachin, 1999; Lovaas, 1981, 2003; Maurice, Green, & Foxx, 2001; Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996) for parents and practitioners are available to provide a summary of the effective teaching methods discovered through controlled studies. These manuals have provided a user-friendly method of disseminating effective behavior analytic methods for teaching children with autism. The result may be greater acceptance and widespread application of behavior analytic methods with children with autism. Much of the research and all of the manualized treatment packages have emphasized the importance of motivating children to respond to teacher directed instructional tasks. Koegel, Carter, and Koegel (1998) and Koegel, Koegel, Shoshan & McNerney (1999) suggested that motivation is pivotal to the teaching of children with autism because its creation is critical to the development of a wide range of skills. Moreover, given the tendency of these children to engage in high rates of escape and avoidance behaviors (Koegel, Koegel, Frea, & Smith, 1995) within instructional demand settings, methods that increase the motivation to respond may be essential to positive long-term outcomes. The ultimate outcome for many children with autism may depend at least partially upon their learning to attend to teacher-directed activities and respond correctly and quickly for reasonable periods of time each day (Drash & Tudor, 1993). This is especially important for children with autism because they frequently fail to learn through exposure to typical social environments (Smith, 2001). As an alternative to mere exposure to everyday experiences, the method of discrete trial instruction (Lovaas, 1981, 1987; Smith, 2001) has been demonstrated to be one of the most effective instructional tools for teaching important language, social, and cognitive skills to children with autism as a component of a comprehensive program of intervention. The method is modeled after Skinner's (1968) three-term contingency arrangement whereby a stimulus is presented by a teacher, a response occurs, and a consequence follows the response in order to strengthen or weaken the likelihood that it will occur again under similar conditions. When discrete trial instruction has been used as a component of a comprehensive program of intensive intervention for children with autism, long-term benefits have been achieved with many children (Lovaas, 1987; McEachin, Smith, & Lovaas, 1993; Smith, 1999). Notwithstanding the benefits of this method, its proper implementation presents substantial challenges to practitioners. …

Incentive Compensation and the Use of Contingent Commissions by Smaller Distribution Channel Members

Insurers operate in a complex market in which many firms compete for business. In this context, we examine the use of contingent commission compensation arrangements for independent agents and we explore whether the use of contingent commission compensation arrangements is justified for this segment of the distribution channel. We find that the various types of producers, distribution systems, and compensation structures, including contingent commission compensation, are a natural development of the competitive insurance marketplace that helps to make insurance available and affordable to millions of insurance consumers.

Board member contingent compensation: watch your back

PurposeExamines new SEC guidelines for the reporting of “Executive Compensation and Related Party Disclosure”.Design/methodology/approachThe study discusses the new SEC guidelines for the reporting of “Executive Compensation and Related Party Disclosure”.FindingsThe compensation of governance boards should not include contingent arrangements of any sort, certainly including stock options.Practical implicationsProvides executives with information on important factors to consider in compensating board members.Originality/valueOf particular value to CEOs and other board members.

Managed Solidarity: Institutions and Intralabor Conflict in Postwar Britain and Germany

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of institutional legacy on the capacities of labor movements to maintain solidarity. The role of industrial and political institutions is assessed through a comparative study of two key strikes in late postwar Britain and Germany. The three types of institutions expected to affect strike solidarity are: first, the internal structure of unions (in this case, the British National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the German metalworkers union (IG Metall)); second, their relations to the larger labor movement, including the unions' links to the plant level, their relationships with other unions, and their relationships with the British Trade Union Confederation (TUC) and German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), respectively; and third, unions' relations with various aspects of the state: the left party, the government, and the law. These historically contingent arrangements within which union leaders manage the diverse interests of their membership help determine capacity for solidarity in two ways: first, by strengthening or weakening the union externally, they raise or lower the net benefits and probability of collective success; second, they determine the central office's level of control over its membership. Rather than relying on class consciousness or camaraderie to solve labor's collective action problems, labor leaders develop strategies within the national institutions they are dealt in order to construct and manage solidarity.

Work Contracts and Earnings Inequality: The Case of Chile

Great social inequality has been one of the worrisome features of economic development in Latin America. This study focuses on Chile, one of Latin America's fastest growing economies with one of the highest levels of income inequality during the 1990s. Using micro-level data from the 1994 and 2000 Encuestas de Caracterización Socio-Económica, this article examines the role of work contracts in explaining male and female earnings and earnings inequality among wage and salary workers over the second half of the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between wage and salary work without a work contract – referred to as ‘informal’ work, and wage and salary work with a work contract. Within the latter group, the study further differentiates by the type of work contract held, such as permanent and a variety of contingent work contracts. The findings reveal that the majority of employees in informal and contingent wage and salary work arrangements earned significantly less than their permanent counterparts. Additionally, informal and contingent wage and salary work arrangements accounted for a small, although increasing, fraction of male and female earnings inequality from 1994 to 2000. Finally, the proliferation of seasonal, fixed-term, and informal wage and salary work arrangements has been one of the few economically significant factors in explaining changes in male and female earnings inequality over the second half of the 1990s.

The Allocation Problem in Multiple-Claimant Representations

Multiple-claimant representations - class actions and other group lawsuits - pose two principal-agent problems: Shirking (failure to maximize the aggregate recovery) and misallocation (distribution of the aggregate recovery other than according to the relative value of claims). Clients have dealt with these problems separately, using contingent percentage fees to motivate lawyers to maximize the aggregate recovery and monitoring devices (disclosure requirements, settlement vetoes, and third-party review) to encourage appropriate allocations. The scholarly literature has proceeded on the premise that monitoring devices are needed to police misallocations, because the fee calculus cannot do the entire job. This paper shows that this premise is mistaken and that its consequence has been to misdirect our understanding of the importance of information problems and bargaining costs in attorney-client relationships. In fact, it is relatively straightforward, as a mathematical matter, to design a two-part contingent fee arrangement that incentivizes a lawyer to both maximize an aggregate recovery and allocate it according to relative claim values. The failure of the market for multiple-claimant representations to generate fee arrangements of this type therefore reflects the operation of empirical factors, not the inherent limits of contingent fees. We believe the principal barriers are information and bargaining costs. Two-part contingent fee arrangements require more information than claimants or attorneys are likely to possess and require more expensive negotiations than the monitoring devices the market actually employs. Monitoring devices are thus cheaper substitutes for more refined contingent fee arrangements, rather than unique solutions to allocation issues.

National pandemic planning must be an ongoing process

Influenza pandemic plans are in place or in development in a number of countries worldwide. In the absence of public health emergencies, little consideration has been given to how to test pandemic preparedness. New Zealand has prepared a pandemic plan, following the WHO pandemic planning guidelines. It aims to facilitate a coordinated and effective national response to an influenza pandemic alert and provides specific advice to assist District Health Boards (DHBs), Public Health Units (PHUs) and other agencies with the preparation of their contingency arrangements. To evaluate the plan and the preparedness of New Zealand's healthcare workforce, a month-long desktop pandemic simulation exercise was carried out. Exercise “Virex” involved the Ministry of Health, National Pandemic Planning Committee, all DHBs and PHUs. A hypothetical scenario was developed, and participants received information as the pandemic evolved. In response to the WHO declaring a Global Pneumonia Alert, New Zealand activated its pandemic action plan. The lessons learned from Exercise “Virex” highlighted the impact on services and the need for central leadership and resulted in the updating of the pandemic action plan. The experience with SARS has highlighted the flexibility of the pandemic action plan to other emerging public health threats and has lead to a strengthening of the planning process.

Why Do Drug Treatment Organizations Use Contingent Staffing Arrangements? An Analysis of Market and Social Influences

Contingent staffing arrangements are defined as conditional and transitory work arrangements. In the drug abuse treatment sector, contingent staffing arrangements have the potential to improve treatment if they are used to increase access to needed services. Alternatively, such arrangements could interfere with the development of consistent, long-term client-staff relationships. Unfortunately, little is known about the consequences of or influences on contingent staff arrangements in this sector. The goal of this study is to examine the conditions under which outpatient substance abuse treatment organizations are more likely to use contingent staffing arrangements. Building on previous research on the social organization of health care structures and practices, we develop a conceptual model based in market economics and institutional perspectives to suggest that treatment organizations choose contingent arrangements in response to market conditions and uncertainty, institutional demands, and client needs. Using data from a nationally representative study conducted in 1988, 1990, and 1995, we find limited evidence that drug treatment units use contingent staff in response to market pressures. Labor market and demand uncertainty, however, are systematically associated with greater use of contingent staff. Study results suggest that expectations and norms from the institutional environment, particularly the organizational context of the treatment unit are strong predictors of the use of contingent staff. By considering both market and social influences of contingent staffing, we contribute to a growing body of research on how markets and institutions interact to influence organizational structures and practices in the health care system.

Charges, Contingencies and Registration

The law draws a distinction between an agreement intended to create a present security and an agreement intended only to create security in the future. In the case of the former, an agreement for a mortgage or charge is treated in equity as a security interest where it shows an intention that the mortgage or charge should take effect immediately or as soon as the debtor acquires an interest in the asset. In the case of the latter, the agreement does not give rise to a security interest but is a mere contract. However, what is unclear is whether an agreement to give security on a contingency will, on the occurrence of the contingent event, give rise to the security interest stipulated. It has been argued powerfully that no security interest should arise. A fairly recent line of cases from Australia and Singapore suggest a different conclusion and it will be the premise of this article that there is no reason why contingent security arrangements should not have the effect intended by the contracting parties.

Pandemic planning in a temperate country with no vaccine producer

Influenza is an ongoing threat to public health in New Zealand with yearly winter epidemics causing considerable morbidity and mortality. In line with the global concern of the emergence of novel influenza strains, a national pandemic plan has been prepared to assist government and non-government agencies prepare their contingency arrangements. The primary objectives are to reduce the morbidity and mortality from influenza illness. The key elements of this plan require activity during interpandemic periods. This includes the further development of surveillance networks for early warning, the development of an influenza awareness program along with the promotion of influenza immunisation, and modelling to assist the development of influenza management strategies including guidelines for antiviral use. New Zealand does not have the ability to manufacture vaccine and this highlights the need for national health intervention planning.

The Making of a Revolutionary Icon: Vera Nikolaevna Figner and the People’s Will in the Wake of the Assassination of Tsar Aleksandr II

A few minutes after two o'clock in the afternoon on 1 March 1881 (O.S.), the carriage of Tsar Aleksandr II traveled briskly along the Ekaterinskii canal in St. Petersburg. As the Imperial procession made its way along the snow-covered streets of the capital, the Emperor was in unusually high spirits.1 Just the day before he had learned that gendarmes had arrested the major revolutionary conspirator, Andrei Zheliabov.2 In August of 1879, Zheliabov and his narodovol'tsy comrades in the People's Will had formally condemned the Tsar to death in the hopes that Aleksandr II's assassination would precipitate a political and social revolution.3 Over the subsequent year and a half, the members of this revolutionary party repeatedly attempted to impose this sentence. Though each endeavor ended in failure, the members of this radical group came dangerously close on a number of occasions. In the weeks preceding 1 March, Aleksandr II and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count Mikhail Loris-- Melikov, had been particularly concerned about an imminent danger to the Tsar.4 Consequently, the news of Zheliabov's arrest was especially welcome and quieted the pronounced fears of the Tsar's inner circle.5 With the terrorist leader in custody, the Tsar felt comfortable continuing his regular Sunday review of the troops at the Mikhailovskii Riding School. Thus, Aleksandr II set off as usual from the Winter Palace on this gray, frosty, Sunday afternoon. His decision to do so proved a fatal mistake. Frustrated by recent arrests and potential setbacks, the Executive Committee of the People's Will resolved that 1 March 1881 would be the day that Aleksandr II's death sentence was finally imposed. Unbeknownst to the Tsar and his ministers, the capture of Zheliabov actually heightened the danger to the Sovereign. Afraid that the decimation of their group was imminent, the leaders of the People's Will resolved to assassinate Aleksandr II without delay, regardless of the cost. For weeks, the revolutionaries' plans to murder the Emperor centered on Malaia Sadovaia Street, a thoroughfare which the Tsar regularly traveled en route to the Mikhailovskii Riding School. With two of their members posing as married merchants, the People's Will leadership let a cheese shop on Malaia Sadovaia Street, tunneled underground and prepared to lay a mine beneath the pavement. When Zheliabov, the driving force behind this plan was arrested on 27 February, the mine was not yet in place. Knowing that Aleksandr II was likely to pass the cheese shop on the morning of I March, the narodovol'tsy hurriedly readied their violent preparations. Throughout the night of 28 February/1 March, while one set of terrorists laid the mine under Malaia Sadovaia Street, several others6 gathered in the apartment of narodovol'tsy leader Vera Nikolaevna Figner and carefully prepared bombs which could be thrown by hand in case the underground mine failed. These contingency arrangements proved decisive. On the afternoon of 1 March, Aleksandr II eschewed the bustling, public route to the Riding School via Nevskii Prospect and Malaia Sadovaia Street, and opted to travel the more open Ekaterinskii Canal and Italianskaia Street where a would-be assassin would have less cover.7 This route variation rendered the narodovol'tsy's underground mine useless, but it did not foil the terrorists. For months they had shadowed the Tsar and noted his routines. The revolutionaries knew that Aleksandr II might follow the Ekaterinskii Canal en route to review the troops at the Riding School.8 Consequently, four revolutionaries equipped with the recently constructed hand-held bombs manned the Ekaterinskii Canal.9 After the review of the troops and a short visit with his cousin, the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna,10 Aleksandr II's cavalcade turned back onto the Ekaterinskii Canal just after two o'clock. Seeing that the Emperor was returning to the Winter Palace via the same course he had taken earlier in the day, Executive Committee member Sofia Perovskaia gave a pre-determined signal to the bomb-throwers to get ready to act. …

Achieving an Industry Standard in the Assessment of Environmental Risk: Oil Spill Risk Management and the Mira Method

ABSTRACT A quantitative approach to assess environmental risks from offshore petroleum activities is developed in this paper. Taking into account both reservoir- and project-specific data, different kinds of oil spill scenarios are analyzed. Oil characteristics and weathering properties are incorporated in a standardized geographical information system (GIS)-based oil spill modeling system, simulating oil trajectories based on wind and current data. Mapping of environmental resources is combined with a sensitivity evaluation and protection value classification. Nationally accepted criteria in Norway for identification of valued ecosystem components (VECs) are adopted to select a limited number of high priority risk indicators. Oil spill statistics are combined with occurrences of VEC resources on a seasonal basis. Oil pollution effect and damage keys have been established based on past oil spill incidents and scientific documentation. Impact assessments are based on available specific resource data and provide results related to the recovery potential of each resource component included. The recovery time is adopted as a general stand-alone parameter that allows classification of severity and ecological significance of acute oil pollution incidents. Quantitative risk results are used to describe and rank environmental risks issued from different sources and scenarios, covering different seasons and activity plans. The ranking also is used to identify high priority resources and geographic areas for contingency actions. The variability in presence and vulnerability of natural resources gives the operator the possibility of adjusting activity plans according to the time-window providing the lowest environmental risk. Contingency plans can be designed for and focused on periods or geographic areas with increased risk. The results are further used in combination with oil spill statistics to determine specific requirements for oil spill contingency systems. Requirements for key factors—such as response time, equipment, functional capability, and efficiency with respect to weather, oil type, and oil quantity—also are established. The overall efficiency of contingency systems is assessed and the risk reanalyzed to identify the potential for risk reduction. Further developments are proposed advising that risk reduction should be considered in combination with costs involved in investments, maintenance and exercises, as well as real combat action costs and compensation costs. Cost-benefit could then be assessed for different contingency arrangements, providing a basis for selection of optimal solutions for contingency systems according to the ALARP principle—“as low as reasonably practicable”—where costs of countermeasures are weighted against potential risk reduction.

Australia's Fixed-Wing Aerial Dispersant Capability

ABSTRACT Since January 1997, Australia has had in place a fixed-wing aerial dispersant capability (FWADC) designed to provide the country with a cost-effective aerial dispersant delivery system. The FWADC is managed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and is funded jointly by AMSA and the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) through its subsidiary, the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC). The FWADC is based on the concept of using single-engine turbine-powered agricultural aircraft with a payload capacity of between 1,850 and 3,100 Liters of dispersant, depending on aircraft type. At a cost of AUD$400,000 per annum, Australia has access to a minimum of two primary aircraft, 24 hours every day of the year. Additional aircraft complement the two primary aircraft on an “aircraft of opportunity” basis. This paper addresses the background to the development and implementation of Australia's fixed-wing aerial dispersant capability and its integration into Australia's national oil spill response contingency arrangements. It also provides an overview of AMSA's role in managing the capability and providing training for aircraft operators and support crews in aerial dispersant-related operations.