ATC staff who held operational endorsements and worked traffic (talked to and separated aircraft) did get redundancies.
This really needs to be emphasised. Next time you get operational delays, send an email and ask why? Why were operational controllers given redundancies when there has been a staffing crisis, and still is.
The trainee pipeline (as they call it) was stopped by the current CEO, who also bet the house on using 457 VISA to fill the void. A stroke of a pen changed this. Add in multiple redundancies of ATC Instructors at the college...
Aided by one of his genius MBA's that learn't in MBA school that staff movement every 6 or 7 years was a good thing for a workforce. This genius probably didn't read all of the the course notes, that maybe this applied to an accounting or advertising firm but not so good when an organisation has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their training. How this clown keeps a job in this organisation is beyond any reason.