Aye, there is the rub. For example:
Since yesterday we have to work 1750 a year
And how many hours were worked, on average, last year per controller? I gather it's not far from that (probably slightly more)--the difference being that now you will not get the overtime rate for those extra hours which you, on average, have been working anyway (and thus one hopes, proving that you were confident you could do so within the rules and without affecting safety).
So you're guaranteed all of an almost 35hr week in a country with ~20% unemployment rate and you're complaining?
radarman,
I think most of us have been astounded at the level of Spanish controllers' salaries, but that is not the fault of the controllers.
From what I've heard that is wide open to debate. For example, what is, and what has historically been the position of the controller's union regarding workforce expansion?
The problem is that in Spain this is a job which attracts a certain type of person, and most definitely not the one who goes into it for the love of aviation.
As I said, give that kind of money to French, British, German, Croatian, or even Italian controllers and I won't say a word. It's the cost/value ratio that bothers me, and the hypocrisy of throwing such a tantrum when it comes to their salaries while as a group they never did anything to improve the safety or the efficiency of the astonishingly poor service they provide.
Finally, as I understand it, the reason behind the swift action by the Spanish government was to prevent the controllers from carrying out their threats of going on strike over the Easter holidays. Doing so in a broke country which has tourism as one of its main sources of income would be frankly irresponsible (now one can say it's not the controllers fault that their country is in the gutter, but two wrongs don't make a right, etc.)
No wonder some of them take to advertising their "plight" on a British forum. Spanish public opinion is, shall we say, less than receptive
No skin off my nose, but I thought I would give a bit of perspective.