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Return to Article: TSA to modify screener pay system

• 43525
  

  Actually PASS (which i hate) is keeping many of the TSA screening officers employed, if we go to a real rating system (which i favor), many of the TSO's would have been fired months ago. 50% of the TSO's have good work ethic, the rest need to find a job somewhere else, this is security and they have no clue what it means. Security to them is reading books, sudoku, smoking breaks, cell fone texting...i could go on and on, you get the idea!

  wdm Posted February 13, 2008 11:04 PM
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  I can agree with all that has been said - TSA is ALWAYS doing more with less with no end in sight - customer service based vs security based, How can a supervisor actually rate someones performance when due to the various shifts and RDO schedule they may only work with the person one day of their work week. The PASS system is BROKE, scrap it - as a supervisor you need a bank of secretaries just to keep up with it. It has gone the way of the Military OER/NCOER system - it has become inflated. The agency needs to give up some of those big pay checks to the bean counters and hire more screeners. the higher ups in personnel remind me of the Robert mcnamaras of the Kennedy Admin during the vietnam war - if they gave you 300 bombs they expected to see 500.75 killed vietnamese, in TSA if you have 7.5 pax come thru per 5 min it should take 1.3 screeners to screen them - I want to know where is the.3 screener at. HQ TSA is so out of touch with reality - spend some time in the airports with screeners not FSDs and TSMs - when in the Army - you want to know what was going on in an organization you ask a Private - don't ask the people in charge they will tell you what you want to know.

  will arnold Posted November 15, 2007 9:50 AM
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  Well i hope that the TSA scraps there program, so that the DoD might drop their p4p too! We as gov employees need to take a stand, those not in a union atleast, and say that we aren't gonna take this crap anymore. I've only been with the gov for alittle over a year, but i can see how they screwed us in 1984. Anyone who willingly takes on a p4p has drank toooo much blue kool-aid. I would never work for the DHS because of their pay system

  Valek Posted October 1, 2007 1:12 PM
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  I feel TSA/DHS needs to look with in it's own laws and regulations. I reported to DHS over 9 months ago, about a TSA Screener who used her position to help bring her family to the USA. Her family did not return to thier own Country and are now in the US illegally, the employee even supports them. Nothing has been done by DHS, the TSA Screener just laughs in the face of the laws she took a oath to up hold.

  RICK WOMAX Posted September 30, 2007 2:10 PM
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  I left after 5 years because the TSA management cannot fine a way to value its employees(PASS is another of a long line of punishment tools). The senior leadership is far far out of touch with the workforce and still solely concerned with the health and wellbeing of the airlines. They still insist that the CIE (COLA) is some form of raise. How sad for the screeners.

  James Frame Posted September 29, 2007 1:08 AM
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  TSA is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to federal service. No pay raises since its inception until the mass turnover forced the crony's to reconsider and pennies when it finally occurs. Raises used to be based on a defunct FAA compensation system that left your raise to the amount of money the agency had left at the end of the year and limited them to 2% of the workforce. The good old boys were taken care of while the rest were told to take a hike.. It is unfortunately foreshadowing of what the current administration is doing to the federal civil service.The new raise scheme is nothing more then an attempt to appease; and another complete scam from the Government.

  Chris Posted September 28, 2007 5:30 PM
• 34027
  

  TSA having the highest attrition rate in DHS should be no surprise.

  1. Screeners at regional airports (spokes in the hub-and-spoke system) are hired as GS-5 part-time on split shifts with no expectation of full time status. If they hold out long enough they may advance from 20 hours per week to 32 hours per week. It's difficult to schedule a second job around irregular TSA shifts that can reach 12.5 hours for 8 hours on the clock and days that float.

  2. The crew at my local spoke airport is chronically understaffed. During the summer months the servicing airline changes planes to larger capacity models to accommodate increased passenger load but there is no adjustment to the already understaffed and overwhelmed screener crew. There is no way the crew can meet the screening requirements within their time limits so they get slammed when the flights are delayed a few minutes. If TSA/DHS would consider stating their staff requirements in man-hours instead of bodies and offer more full-time positions (even with split-shifts) I suspect the attrition rate would drop. As it is now, the most positive aspect of joining TSA is it serves to provide status as a Federal Employee when looking for other Federal jobs.

  Kay Posted September 28, 2007 1:53 PM
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  The present system is rampid with the "good ole boy" syndrom. Adding another pay level will not change anything. Screeners went from testing once a year for their job to testing four time a year with the threat of being fired.

  Robert Rankin Posted September 28, 2007 11:23 AM
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  My offspring works for TSA - has since it's inception. S/he has numerous customer kudos, scores high on proficiency tests and has captured several weapons. S/he received the first raise every (of any type) just in the past 3 months.

  As a federal supervisor, tha antics local manage pulls, their lack of knowledge of OPM rules and regs makes me wonder how TSA even continues to exist in the market place. Pending union representation the employees need more omsbudmen and better access to a higher power to pass along abuses.

  This is needed service, but an agency afloat in a raft with NO leadership.

  Doug Posted September 28, 2007 9:46 AM