FAA appeals order granting tech pay raise

A 10 month-long battle over a governmentwide pay raise for information technology workers continues at the Federal Aviation Administration, where agency officials are now appealing an arbitrator's decision ordering them to grant computer specialists the raise. In the appeal, FAA contends that the arbitrator's decision is inconsistent with the personnel reform laws that apply to the agency. The pay raise under debate was announced nearly a year ago by the Office of Personnel Management and applies only to certain positions at grades GS-5 through GS-12 in certain occupational series, including computer specialists (GS-334), computer engineers (GS-854) and computer scientists (GS-1550). The pay raise became effective in January. The FAA refused to give its computer specialists the raise, contending that because the agency's pay system is separate from the government's General Schedule, unions must negotiate for the pay raise. The Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS) union, which represents the group of GS-334 employees at the FAA affected by the decision, disputed that interpretation and filed a grievance Jan. 31. An arbitrator ordered the agency to give the FAA employees the raise, retroactive to Jan. 1 with interest. "I think their chances of winning are remote at best, but they still have that opportunity," said Michael Derby, PASS' general counsel. "We won round one and hopefully we will deliver the knockout punch in round two." PASS has until Oct. 29 to respond to the appeal. The Federal Labor Relations Authority will rule on the case. Derby said he doesn't expect a decision before early 2002. "Meanwhile the FAA has a bunch of disgruntled computer specialists on their hands, wondering why they aren't being paid like every other computer specialist in the government," Derby said. "The FAA pays a lot of lip service to aviation safety, but has been going out of its way to demoralize this group of employees who are directly involved in aviation safety."