Thanks Prol. Continuing on the point about Safety Cases, at the unit I mentioned we wrote a case allowing us to refuse "established tasks" on the grounds that we were not given the full establishment of staff to undertake these duties (seems amazingly logical, doesn't it - and was accepted by Command?)
It worked on a sliding scale, and was weather and aid dependant. I can't remember details but something like - Wx good (Blue/white) ILS available = no training PARs; or, Wx IFR (Green or Worse)) Closing LARS so APP/DIR could be band-boxed (to allow the DIR to do the PARs) etc. Increasing levels of restriction allowed us to operate when down to less that 60% establishment
and proved v.useful when dealing with staff sickness on top of low staff levels. It meant Roster Writers didn't have to ask staff to work unduly long hours (although some "overtime" was inevitable) because the aim was keeping workload within acceptable limits.
The measures were properly documented in Unit Orders, and squadrons/adjacent units advised of any applicable restrictions (NOTAM'ed where necessary). All actions were logged, and followed up to ensure it wasn't being used as a dodge (surely not?)
ISTM JATCC training is always geared rowards coping (where refusal is seen as failure) and not, as it perhaps should be, managing a situation appropriately? (Anyone from CATCC what to pu that point?)