GovernmentExecutive.com

Airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration have flooded the agency with so many discrimination complaints that it has begun to overhaul its management practices, agency officials acknowledge.

Several TSA screeners claim the agency has failed to adequately address a litany of problems they face at airports nationwide, including discrimination against minorities and veterans, selective hiring and firing practices, nepotism and management violations. They expressed frustration over the problems and said that in some cases security is being compromised.

Some screeners want a congressional inquiry into the situation and an outside organization to provide oversight of TSA because they have lost faith in the agency's ability to resolve problems internally.

TSA chief spokesman Mark Hatfield acknowledged on Friday that the agency's Civil Rights Office faces a backlog of discrimination complaints. He said the agency received 1,848 complaints during 2003. He said 41 percent of those complaints were from people who either lost their jobs as the agency downsized by 6,000 screeners to a workforce of 50,000 or were not hired.

The growing backlog of discrimination complaints was first reported in CQ Homeland Security, a Congressional Quarterly publication.

Hatfield said the agency is overhauling its human resources department and implementing procedures to address existing problems and mitigate future ones.

For example, the agency is introducing a complaint process modeled after the U.S. Postal Service REDRESS program, an alternative dispute resolution program that encourages workers to participate in mediation during the informal, counseling stage of a discrimination case. TSA also has increased the number of employees in its Civil Rights Office to 36, and is in the process of hiring 12 more employees, Hatfield said.

Screeners, however, said TSA not only has failed to resolve complaints in a timely fashion, but is not doing enough to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

Bob Marchetta, acting president of the New York Metropolitan Airport Workers Association, said TSA has not provided screeners with adequate training on their rights. MAWA was formed last year to represent the interests of screeners mainly at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports. However, Marchetta said he communicates with screeners at other airports across the country.

The retired screener is critical of TSA's new efforts to address complaints.

"For the TSA to say they are reinventing the wheel, so to speak, is disturbing," Marchetta said. "What we have here is a situation where these rules and regulations were supposed to be in order and enforceable from day one and they haven't been yet. This is not proactive, this is reactive on their behalf."

Peter Winch, a national organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, said screeners are contacting his union with complaints. They have reported instances of nepotism, discriminatory hiring practices, and management violations of standard operating procedures.

Winch said he was told that the phone number TSA set up to handle complaints at times has been flooded with so many calls that operators stopped taking complaints.

TSA's grievance process is also "woefully inadequate," according to Winch. "We'd like them to set up a grievance procedure where a neutral person would be able to address grievances," he said.

The agency prohibits screeners from engaging in collective bargaining, which is another area of contention for many workers. AFGE filed a motion this week in federal appeals court in an effort to win screeners the right to organize.

Hatfield said the Office of Civil Rights is working with TSA's workforce performance and training division to educate employees on how to file complaints, and with managers on ways to avoid conflicts before they arise. He said the agency would distribute materials on its conflict resolution program to employees and managers in the coming months and provide formal training on how to preempt problems and resolve them.

"We have taken significant steps to not only get to the backlog of complaints, but to process in a very timely fashion future complaints and, more importantly, to educate and provide a program to our employees and managers that will hopefully reduce the number of future complaints," Hatfield said.

COMMENTS

• I think that screeners should STOP allowing passengers into the airports! (threw the mag) Maybe then we will be heard. Do the screeners not realize just how much power they have over the air traffic in this country? Furthermore,the individuals running TSA and the country could really give a shit! It's all about linning their pockets and their retirement! Sharon a tsa employee Posted July 31, 2008 2:54 PM
• I wouldn't follow any "redress" system set up by the Postal Service. This is nothing but cronyism; and designed to keep their managers’ and supervisors’ records clean of any discrimination violations against them. This is similar to a doctor cutting off the wrong arm and then saying "I'm sorry." The redress system only allows them to do it again. Don't be stupid folks and settle for this. This system will be used against you because the word of mouth will follow wherever you go and they will build a record on you and then you have no leverage to fight back. Be smart. Charlie Posted November 17, 2006 11:51 AM
• I am an inspector with Transportation Security Administration and am required to travel for periods of one to two weeks at a time. When I got pregnant it got quite difficult to travel. As soon as I turned seven months, I started requesting a position where I didn’t have to travel since it was going to be almost impossible to travel and leave the baby in someone else’s care (I am a single mom). I was told that I was on my own and was encouraged to look on usajobs.opm.gov. As a result -- and after not receiving any assistance to get a non-traveling job -- I decided to take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act. To begin I was denied taking the benefits and it is very sad to say that not even human resources knew about the rules and regulations regarding FMLA after the birth of a child. After contacting DC and showing the regulations to HR I was able to take the entitled FMLA. Furthermore, during that time I applied for several job openings as an non-traveling inspector. Besides not hearing about the final outcome, after one and a half months I was told the position was given to someone else. I was told that I did not do well on the phone interview and that I should keep applying for other jobs. I still don’t know how performance on a phone interview can supersede having done the job previously. I was afraid to contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding this issue because I feared retaliation, but it would be unfair to let this happen to someone else if these issues are not properly resolved. GovExec.com reader Posted September 29, 2005 1:22 AM