I hope so too but: The agreement they want to ditch applies to CR only doesn't it? What if NATS let it be known they will be making people compulsorily redundant from next May. In the meantime they offer VR at much reduced rates to those of a few years ago. There may well be plenty of staff with many years service that would take the offer knowing they may get little after May. As I said upthread, BA/VIR pilots probably thought they were safe 6 months ago and look where they are now-ATCOs are no different unfortunately except for the ability to replace quickly.
Only time will tell if this is mis-management but I suspect any replacements may well be far more ruthless than someone whose brother is actually an ATCO and probably gets a good insight to the operation. Be careful what you wish for.