One wonders why the regulators aren't imposing fines on the airport authorities/ATC providers who aren't staffing their airports/centres correctly.
A large fine for being understaffed would soon focus airport operators/ATC providers attention on their shortcomings and bring the problem to the attention of the media.
Over the last few years traffic numbers have been increasing at many airports and this trend looks likely to continue at an ever increasing pace. At a certain point this requires extra ATC positions to be open, either for longer periods or positions split or new positions to be created to accommodate this increasing traffic.
We are seeing overseas ATC contracts starting to poach controllers from many countries, exacerbating ATC shortages even more.
The regulators really do need to get on top of this.