FAA under fire for using time off to settle grievances

Federal Aviation Administration managers violated a 1998 labor agreement when they settled grievances with air traffic controllers by awarding them time off work, according to Transportation Department Deputy Assistant Inspector General David Dobbs. Under a 1998 agreement between FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), managers are prohibited from giving employees credit hours for work not performed, Dobbs wrote in a Dec. 14 memorandum to Steve Brown, FAA's associate administrator for air traffic services. Several complaints to the IG telephone hotline prompted Dobbs to investigate four FAA locations where credit hours had allegedly been awarded to settle complaints. In December 2000, managers at one Southern Region air traffic facility gave all 306 NATCA members 16 hours of excused absence as settlement for 17,000 grievances filed by the union during a two-day period. A program manager at FAA headquarters gave 113 union members located in Anchorage, Alaska, 60 credit hours each last December in order to settle an unfair labor practice complaint from NATCA. "We disagree that it is a violation of the labor agreement," said NATCA spokesman Doug Church. "Our view is the practice of granting credit hours not only meets the spirit [of the labor contract], but also the intent of the contract." FAA managers argue that credit hours do not affect the agency's bottom line because they don't have any cash value. But Dobbs argued that granting unearned credit hours could affect air traffic operations because the practice affects staffing. "By giving away credit hours to settle grievances, [FAA] receives no work, and the individual is entitled to take a day off at some future date," Dobbs wrote. "This unearned benefit may negatively impact facility staffing on the day some individual decides to use the unearned credit hours." Language in the fiscal 2002 Transportation appropriations bill orders FAA managers to stop giving time off to settle grievances. Although NATCA supports the appropriations bill in general, the union has problems with the credit hours issue, Church said. Dobbs asked the FAA to ensure that no more credit hours are granted to settle union grievances and other complaints.