3miles
From what I understand those buzz words are new to the centre which the topic relates to??
Well if the centre that the poster is reffering to is within the UK, or even in fact europe, then they are most certainaly not new, whether it be a TWR/APP unit or a Centre...they all require to have a Safety Management System in place by law, its not a NATS idea, its Aviation Law. and has been for some time. How that SMS gets put together has strict guidance, and is required to be audited and approved by SRG/CAA and European legislation.
Along with Job accountabilites and Safety Accountabilites for each role....which is what links to the ATSA's. Read there Safety Accountabilites, and when you read, provide Met observations, input flight data, etc...and see that they dont exist anymore because they have been replaced by technology, then it becomes a difficult fight for the ATSA's not to lose their job, Their Weight in Gold is difficult to put on a Saftey Accountability, along with fielding Phone calls, sorting out bad flightplans, running to get you a support controller, being another valuable pair of eyes. But some of the other tasks that could be taken up by assistants, to replace the tasks that they dont do anymore, would ensure when you read their safety Accountabilities, make them a lot harder to get rid of then. As the other cynical poster points out, management and the Unions are not here to be nice and think of peoples mortgages, they deal in how much money they can safe, and yes they will look to loading other peoples jobs together, but then lets face it there an awfull lot of dross in NATS, doing jobs with massive teams that could be done by fewer individuals. But perhaps the reason VN's keep coming up for these positions, is because the staff we have wont do it! at the end of the day its far cheaper for NATS to keep the ATSA, not employ a load of others if the ATSA's took on some of these roles, and quite honestly I'd have thought especially some of the younger ATSA's they would relish the task of getting an opportunity to develop a career and not see their job become mundane because of the amount of technology thats taken away a lot of their work.