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Home»Airport Safety & Security»Biden Administration Offers TSA Employees Full Collective Bargaining Rights, Better Pay
Airport Safety & Security

Biden Administration Offers TSA Employees Full Collective Bargaining Rights, Better Pay

Joseph AlbaBy Joseph AlbaJune 17, 20212 Comments3 Mins Read
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Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered Transportation Security Administrator David Pekoske to align employees’ rights with those enjoyed by the vast majority of federal workers, including access to the General Schedule pay system.

The change reflects the more labor-friendly approach of President Joe Biden, granting a long-standing goal of workers at an agency created to improve airport security after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The pay raise alone would not appear to cause any objections and that will easily earn passage, but the full endowment into Title 5 would guarantee collective bargaining and this may be a sticking point to grant Title 5 rights to TSA staff since it was specifically rejected by Congress when the TSA was originally established.. 

As a quasi-law enforcement organization, the   federal law enforcement officer or a full-time municipal, county, state, tribal or territorial law enforcement officer who is a direct government agency employee.

  • Be sworn and commissioned to enforce criminal or immigration statutes.
  • Be authorized by the employing agency to have the weapon in connection with assigned duties.
  • Have completed the TSA Law Enforcement Officer Flying Armed Training Course.

“I believe wholeheartedly they are underpaid,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said. “We as Congress should be appropriating more money for TSO workers so we can bump them up in pay and bring them up to the level that most federal employees are getting, because I do think that that’s part of the problem.”

When Congress first created TSA nearly 20 years ago, it specifically excluded TSOs from the General Schedule pay scale and Title 5 personnel system, which many — but not all — other federal employees are classified under today.

Jeff Neal, former chairman of the TSA blue-ribbon panel, said his team also found no evidence that moving TSOs to the General Schedule would resolve their frustrations and improve workforce morale.

“When we looked at employee survey data at TSA, what we found is that there were some airports where the workforce had good things to say about TSA and about the work,” he said. “And there were airports where people were doing the same work and were incredibly unhappy. Obviously pay is a factor in that, but the quality of supervisors is a bigger factor.”

Under Mayorkas’ directive, Pekoske must permit TSA employees to collectively bargain “to the same extent as permitted” by most other federal workers, allow employees to file appeals with the Merit Systems Protections Board, and ensure that screeners “are paid at a level that is no less than that of their counterparts on the General Schedule pay scale.”

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Joseph Alba
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Mr. Alba was previously Editor of the Airport Press for 12 years covering both local as well as global aviation news. Prior to this, Mr. Alba had Executive positions in Systems Engineering and Marketing with IBM World Trade, and had foreign assignments in the Far East and Latin America earning three Outstanding Achievement Awards. Mr. Alba also directed a new function dealing with Alternate Fuels for Public Service Electric & Gas company in New Jersey and founded a Natural Gas Vehicle Consortium consisting of car company executives and fleet owners, and NGV suppliers in New Jersey. Mr. Alba was a founding partner of ATA, an IT Consulting company which is still active in Central and South America. After leaving the armed forces, Mr. Alba’s initial employee was the U.S. Defense Department as an analyst.

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View 2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. I on July 29, 2021 10:52 pm

    THESE PEOPLE ARE MISSING THE POINT!!! We are not asking to be LEO’s we are asking for the same rights as other agencies in the same capacity as other Government employees. Yes, poor pay is a BIG factor , however, it’s the lack of understanding what we do on a daily basis. Which is quite obvious according to what I have been reading. “Clueless” would be a good analogy. You would think that our rights as Federal Employees with Title 5 GS pay scale was coming out of their accounts !! Good God !! Can someone PLEASE get it right FOR ONCE!!

    Reply
    • Mr. G on September 28, 2021 5:42 pm

      Preach my brother…Ty from MIA

      Reply

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