Let's be quite clear about this: This was NOT due to Controller sickness. It was due to a rostered shortage of ASSISTANTS which was known at least 24 hours in advance and the measures I outlined above failed to persuade anybody else to take up the offer.
To read a NATS spokesman say it is common is interesting! What IS common is that they consistently roster the bare minimum of staff for night shifts and if anyone goes sick then there is a strong possibility that sectors will have to be closed. It not many other jobs would someone be rostered to work a 9-hour night shift without a rostered break and with food and drink being forbidden in the Ops room on pain of disciplinary action. Yet this is what happens on the North Bank every night: two ATSAs are rostered for two positions.
That the whole system does not fall apart is amazing. You will not believe the running around that goes on every duty shuffling people between sectors every hour or so just to ensure that everybody can have their legal breaks.
The public have no idea how close the whole system is to collapse at times, and inaccurate reporting by the press does not help.