How many non valid ATCOs does NATS have and how many do we need? Each is expensive compared with engineers etc., who are being asked to take the brunt of the VRs. Arguably it's non/less technical staff who do the jobs at CTC that many here bleat about, but they aren’t the ones being pinpointed for VRs.
I appreciate that ops staff do a vital job that is the core of NATS, but remember that without the engineers you would never get your equipment, and everything out there like radars, updated or fixed. It takes a lot of (CTC) people to do all that and write all the documents that the UK and EC regulators demand. I’d love not to have to write another report, but someone has to do it or the regulators would close us down. Could the non valid ATCOs do it after 20+ years of rarely/never having to write long reports?
It’s 7.30 pm and some are still here at CTC, probaly having worked a 9-10 hour day with very short breaks to write to pprune, etc.