BALIX
Thanks for the well written response. You neatly slid the point away from what I was talking about.
Many occupations have busy and slack periods during the average working day. Most of these staff accordingly. Your local 24 hour supermarket does not have as many people rostered to be on at 3am as it does at 3pm, neither does your local hospital.
Most NATS ATC units do roster the same number of staff for 3am as 3pm. These staff then split the night shifts so that on some units they spend a whole nightshift at home in bed, whereas on other units they swap over at 2 or 3 in the morning. This is quite different from getting your head down during a quiet spell.
The issue of SRATCOH and time off between shifts is a smokescreen. The airlines manage to roster crews with similar legal restrictions, and they can do it on a day by day basis when necessary.
It is an undeniable fact that NATS is putting delays in to the system because positions are closed due to staff shortages.
How can this be justified when they are allowing controllers to abuse their working practices in this way?