The ATSA thing is not new - management have been trying to be rid of them for decades - a desire that I have never comprehended. An experienced ATSA is far more use in the ops room than one of the new breed of young rapid promotion ATCOs ('cos no-one else wants the promotion). Surely it would make more sense from a cost, safety and service provision point of view to have ops rooms populated by relatively inexpensive ATSAs than to get rid of them and requiring more ATCOs to do the tasks.