AviationAirport screener union says TSA is violating contract

In January, 45,000 airport screeners and their union reached an agreement with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on the first collective bargaining agreement since the agency was created after 9/11.

NJ.comreports that the American Federation of Government Employees union now says TSA management has violated the terms of the January agreement in several areas, including performance evaluations, vacation time, dress code, and more. These violations, the unions says, have led to a drop in employee morale.

“After the contract, morale was up, with people thinking, ‘We finally have rights,’” Stacy Bodtman, a screener at Newark Liberty International Airport and member of the AFGE national negotiating team that hammered out the contract told NJ.com. “Now it’s back down, with people feeling like the TSA is just going around doing whatever they want to do.”

The TSA says the agency has upheld their end of the agreement, denying it violated the contract.

“TSA has been following the collective bargaining agreement since its implementation as it continues its focus on security,” the agency said in a statement.

Airport screeners are among the lowest and most maligned federal employees, despite being an important part of the line of defense in preventing a terrorist attack. A 2011 report by TSA managers at Newark Liberty airport said low morale among screeners was also the result of numerous security breaches at the airport.

AFGE union has filed grievances with the TSA’s National Resolution Center. Union officials said the TSA agreed to create a new employee evaluation system in the contract, but instead implemented its own system.

The union says that when it comes to the dress code, there is clear language stating that employees can wear shorts in 85-degree heat or when the humidity is over 70 percent, but managers at some airports have told their employees that both qualifications must be met in order for them to wear shorts. Screeners who do not obey the rule have been wrongfully disciplined.

In addition, union officials said the new system unfairly judges employees based on their lowest score in several performance categories, instead of by an average. According to the union, the scoring system results in a judgment based on penalties such as withholding pay or even being fired.

Union officials also have an issue when it comes to forcing employees to bid on vacation days and holidays

“Instead of collaboratively working on the development of this system — and the union repeatedly asked about this — the agency said ‘This is the new system.’”Chad Harris, an attorney for the AFGE, the nation’s largest federal employees union told NJ.com.