Originally Posted by
escaped.atco
And so the cycle continues. I have seen it many times over my career as have many others on this forum I'd guess. Each time previously, wages have invariably gone up as ATCOs migrate to where they can get the best deal and lifestyle, smaller units struggle as the larger units hoover up the best qualified. Its lucky NATS have plenty of trainees that they pushed through last year just waiting to be given live training and validated, that'll help the shortage. Or maybe not, if I recall they sacked all their trainees while at the same time handing out large redundancy payments to non-operational staff!
Happened back in 1968.
I had just been selected for Air Traffic Control Assistant (ATCA; the 'old' name for ATSAs) duties in December 1967 by the Board of Trade; suddenly the government decided there would be a wholesale 'freeze' on ALL civil service recruitment (including ATCOs and ATCAs) for 12 months and I wasn't called forward until January 1969.