FAA to cut 700 supervisors

The Federal Aviation Administration will cut 700 supervisors under the agency's new labor agreement with its air traffic controllers.

To pay for controllers' raises negotiated under the agreement and to fund more controller positions, the FAA will reduce its air traffic supervisory ranks from 2,200 positions to 1,500. That will bring the supervisor to controller ratio from 1:7 to 1:10.

The FAA will cut supervisors through attrition, so no layoffs are planned, an FAA spokesman said. No timetable has been set for completing the cuts.

The Federal Managers Association says the cuts will harm air traffic safety.

"The first-line supervisors not only manage the people," said Bill Pearman, president of FMA's FAA conference and an air traffic supervisor. "We manage the flow and movement of traffic."

In 1994, the FAA began to scale back supervisory ranks as part of the National Performance Review's push to make the supervisory ratio 1:15 governmentwide.

"That initiative was halted by the management at FAA, who decided that they did see a detriment to the system," Pearman said. "They started beefing the supervisors' numbers back up because there was a deterioration in service. Now, through labor negotiations, they seem to want to take that back down again."

The FAA is reducing the supervisory ranks over time to avoid abrupt disruptions, the FAA spokesman said.

"Senior management is concerned about the safety issue. If they felt safety would be compromised, they would never have agreed to that reduction," he said.

Randy Schwitz, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said safety will be enhanced by cutting supervisors and adding additional controllers.

"There are way too many supervisors," Schwitz said. "That's overhead that does not perform any critical safety functions. We have some facilities where there are almost two managers to every one controller."

Controllers will take care of paperwork and other administrative tasks that supervisors now control, Schwitz said.

On June 15, the FAA and the controllers association announced a five-year labor agreement, which included the supervisory cuts. The agreement also includes a merit-based incentive program for controllers and better pay for controllers who work in the nation's busiest air traffic hubs. Under the agreement, the number of controllers will go up from 14,840 to 15,000 next year, and remain at 15,000 for three years. The agreement allows the FAA to hire 300 additional controllers in each of the following two years.

Pearman said the managers association has asked the Transportation Department's inspector general to look into the safety effects of cutting supervisors. The association met with FAA Administrator Jane Garvey on Thursday. Garvey told the supervisors that the FAA would defend its plan to reduce their ranks.