As a colleague of Dick N Cider, I fully support his comments.
Also some facts about ATC:
- only about 5% of the population has the aptitude to do the job
- it involves 24hr shift work, public holiday, and some overtime, and an ATCs salary is based on that
- most ATCs work public holidays. E.g. In 27 years I've worked 23 Xmas days. All ATCs work some of the easter holidays, Xmas holidays, etc. Its the nature of the job and ATCs are remunerated accordingly.
- As an Australian ATC, the government is required to contribute to my superanuuation (pension). The value of about 11% of my salary is paid by the Oz governement into my super scheme. I also chose to contribute to my superannuation. The Irish system for the ATC pension scheme is not unique.
- ATC is an integral component of the Safety Management System of any ANSP and aviation in general. Any change to ATC, no matter how minor, has significant consequences for the Safety Management system of that ANSP and must be carefully managed. Consequently major changes to ATC technology and procedures, e.g. 2 ATC controlled sectors to 1 ATC sector, need to have extremely robust safety assessment procedures during development and implementation.
So I've found some of the comments by the like of pottwiddler and sober lark to be disingenuous, and needlessly confrontational. You're (that's you're not your, learn English sometime fool) posts display your lack of understanding of the entire issue and indeed how the aviation industry works.
Get the facts before you express an opinion.
