I think what irishatco forgot to mention is that the union and staff have said that they were understaffed for quite some time but management disagreed. Also the staff were asked to take on extra airspace, new roosters etc in return for payments and other deals which apparently the IAA have conveniently forgotten about. The IAA and the union seem to be permanently in the labour court.
Unfortunately the IAA have the attitiude that controllers are just a drain on their finances. Now it has come to the stage where peole are starting to leave(I being one of them), there are also a few female controllers who are pregnant and will be on maternity leave for the busy summer period and traffic is also way up. Anyone with a bit of common sense would have seen it coming.....but there lies the problem with the IAA. I also don't think they care just how fed up staff are with the way they are treated. Having talked to a few old colleagues lately I'm surprised just how many are thinking of jumping ship.