I have been hearing nasty rumours that the UK's SARG are considering scrapping SRATCOH, replacing it with a "unit specific" scheme.
This gives me grave cause for concern, given the intensive research that was undertaken into ATCOs fatigue before SRATCOH was introduced, that we could be potentially back to the 16+ hour shifts that used to be worked at my unit.
We are already pushing and sometimes exceeding the limits of SRATCOH, due to staff shortages, regular requests for extentions of airport hours, etc. There is always the moral pressure applied, e.g. the airport needs the business, we are losing money, etc.
SRATCOH is the only protection we have, or we could be in similar postions to those already mentioned by others.