Well Muppit, if you were a bean-counter wouldn't you try and get rid of top of the scale ATCO2s and replace them with low scale or T+D ? It happens everywhere else. In fact you have been very lucky at Gatwick because (I believe) you are one of the favoured London set who do not have bid for your own jobs every 5 years - unlike Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brum etc.. (There I think the contracts were put in on the basis of all employed at the lowest salary!) None of the bean-counting bastards seems to reckon that having experienced ATCOs actually makes a difference. Welcome to the brave bad world of PPP.
Taliban first, bean-counters next .....