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More than 800 flight service employees participating in an age discrimination lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration have asked a federal judge to block the outsourcing of their jobs until their case has been heard.

The employees have a good chance of prevailing when the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules on the case they filed in late March, said Charles Day Jr., one of the lawyers representing them, on Wednesday. But if their suit isn't settled before Oct. 3, the date that the agency plans to lay them off and transfer flight service work to Lockheed Martin Corp., they will suffer "irreparable harm," he said.

Day and Joseph Gebhardt, lawyers with the firm Gebhardt & Associates, late last week asked the court to grant them a preliminary injunction ordering the FAA to suspend outsourcing plans while the lawsuit is pending.

Without a preliminary injunction, flight service specialists will "incur massive financial losses and severe and irreparable harm to their lives" because they will lose "all of their various federal civil service protections and benefits, including retirement benefits" when their jobs are outsourced, the lawyers argued. "What's perhaps the most grievous of all is that we've got people within a few months, a few weeks, a few years of their federal retirements, and they're going to lose it," Day said.

Lawyers for both sides have agreed that the judge should hold a hearing on the preliminary injunction by early September, Day said. No date has been set for a hearing on the case itself, in which 834 federal flight service employees over the age of 40 allege that FAA officials targeted their jobs for a public-private competition because the bulk of them were nearing retirement age.

The outsourcing decision violates the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act because older employees will be disproportionately affected, Day and Gebhardt argued.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown declined to comment on the request for a preliminary injunction, saying she could not discuss ongoing litigation.

But the FAA is "fully prepared to take every action necessary to [transfer] the service to Lockheed Martin," Brown said. "In fact, almost everything is already in place."

Lockheed Martin plans to use existing buildings and equipment at first, Brown said, so "no change was required there." The workforce will remain similar as well because the vast majority of federal flight service specialists already have accepted jobs with Lockheed, Brown said. The company has hired more specialists "than were determined to be necessary to run the system," she said.

The age discrimination case is one of several lawsuits filed in the aftermath of Lockheed's win. The agency recently rejected bid protests filed by two officials representing the flight service employees.

COMMENTS

• I'm afraid the Airways specialist is wrong! Many Flight service people are losing jobs after closure of the 28 facilities. Unlike the DOD that helped its employees the FAA chose not to participate in preference programs like the ICTAP that gives the opportunity and a preference in other agencies to their RIF'd employees. Many of us that have other skills are not eligible to apply to other agencies because they are not accepting applications from outside their agencies (check usajobs) unless we are in preference programs like ICTAP, VRA, CTAP, etc etc. and when we can apply the many preference programs in place put us on the bottom of the pile. I hope that specialist is never RIF'd like us by the current FAA. The specialist will find the other agencies doors closed this time. GovExec.com reader Posted August 10, 2005 10:34 PM
• Outsourcing is great. It saves money and in return you get a quality product. We need more outsourcing, not less. Manager Posted August 9, 2005 4:14 PM
• Airways Specialist needs to get his facts right. Although on paper the 2,700 or so Flight Service employees may have priority rights for other FAA jobs, in reality less than 100 of the 2,700 have been selected for continued FAA jobs. And the outlook for others is not bright- if in fact 2,700 went to other government jobs, then Lockheed Martin would not be able to perform for its end of the contract, LM is depending on the vast majority of employess NOT being offered other government jobs. And it appears the FAA is doing it's best to make sure that employees don't have other government jobs to go to. For the facts, I would point Airways to the NAATS website at http://naats.org The latest twist is that employees are being told they have to wait two years before getting non-governmental employment because of a conflict of interest law. No government job available, and you can't take a non-government job for two years because of a conflict of interest law. Talk about lack of care for your employees! I certainly hope each and every dedicated FAA employee being displaced by this finds work, and doesn't lose the time already spent towards a retirement pension. But then again, this is the FAA, and Title 5 does not apply. Just ask the leaders at the top. To anyone considering a job at FAA- now is a good time to consider something else. Jim Posted August 8, 2005 2:07 PM