Quoting speedbird462:
On a normal morning shift Heathrow has 5 or 6 controllers on duty to allow for breaks, mosty 30mins to 1hr and 30 mins off. Your procedures must be very different and complicated to require 14 controllers for a shift? There is quite a difference 14 to 6 and Heathrow handles a bit more traffic than Barcelona.
The above would seem to question the stress and strain the new duties, that Spanish ATC say are adversely affecting their health and making them go on sick leave. According to the Spanish press the number of working days of sick leave that has been taken monthly since January 2010 are a follows:
January 2010: 1,211 days of sick leave
February 2010: 1,268 days of sick leave
(New law on ATCs' T&Cs signed in Parliament)
March 2010: 2,295 days of sick leave
April 2010: 2,778 days of sick leave
May 2010: 3,458 days of sick leave
June 2010: 4,315 days of sick leave
July 2010: 3,159 days of sick leave *(up to 18 July 2010)
Projection to 31 July = 5,760 days sick leave
August 2010 - should be quite interesting.....
There are 2,300 ATCs in Spain and 4,000 in France...........How many are there in the United Kingdom? Does anyone have the answer?
In 2009 the average number of hours worked by the Spanish ATC was 1,750 (some did more and some less obviously) and about 550 hours of those 1,750 were being put in as overtime hours, as it was the ATCs who controlled and set the duty hours. The new law has increased their minimum duty hours of 1,200 per year to the average they worked in 2009 of 1,750 hours. They are not working any more or less hours than they did in 2009 but with the difference that the 550 hours overtime (average) they worked last year at nearly three times the normal working hourly rate, is included in their normal yearly salary of about 200,000 Euros.
It seems it was less stressful and painful for the Spanish ATCs to do the extra 550 hours in 2009, when these hours were being paid at a premium rate.... and their yearly average salaries were over 300,000 Euros. Some Spanish ATCs took as much as 900,000 Euros home in 2009........
All the above is according to the Spanish press, which is unanimous in its basic information and quoting official sources.......