Transportation security officers are the front line of the Transportation Security Administration. In testimony May 21, Congress heard that these key security personnel suffer from low pay and high turnover rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEnsuring that TSA hires, trains and retains professional workers should be one of the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s top priorities. Unfortunately, the administration has placed supporting TSA workforce on the back-burner,\u201d said Lou Correa, D-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Correa questioned the wisdom of deploying TSOs to the southern border at the start of the summer travel season. \u201cTSA workforce is already stretched too thin and can\u2019t afford such diversions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DHS Acting Inspector General John V. Kelly pointed to a number of issues plaguing the TSA workforce, which at the end of the fiscal year 2017 numbered some 61,000 employees, more than half of whom were entry-level workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TSA doesn\u2019t always hire the most qualified people, he said, and would benefit from an improved interview process. The agency has training deficiencies, with no standardized approach to training. \u201cThis can cause a significant problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attrition is an especially sore point, running at about 17 percent overall and as high as 26 percent among part-timers. In FY17 TSA spent $75 million to hire and train over 9,000 new security officers, roughly 20 percent of whom left within six months of being hired, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That turnover rate has a big impact at the Port of Seattle, said Lance Lyttle, managing director of the aviation division there. A booming economy makes TSA less than competitive, and with turnover rates high among TSOs, the airport has seen lines stretching through the terminal and out into the parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TSA recently approved a temporary increase in wages for local TSOs in Seattle, who now are starting at more than $20 per hour. Lyttle said such measures are crucial to continued safe operations. \u201cLower turnover rates and decreased cycle times for recruitment and training will lead to more efficient and effective TSOs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Money alone won\u2019t solve the problem, according to J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO. He pointed to systemic issues within TSA that discourage TSOs from staying on for the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The TSO workforce is \u201cseparate and unequal,\u201d he said. Unlike other TSA and DHS workers, \u201cTSOs are excluded from the due process rights, the collective bargaining rights, the pay system and other personnel rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This results in low salaries and meager rewards even for top performers, he said. At the same time, the disciplinary system is overly harsh, and TSOs have no access to an effective grievance and arbitration process. He called for TSOs to be covered under federal Title 5 protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The subcommittee also heard from Jeffrey Neal, senior vice president at ICF, who reported on the findings of a blue-ribbon panel chartered by TSA to look at human capital. The panel found that TSOs perceive \u201cfavoritism in promotions and work assignments, inadequate pay and challenging working conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The panel recommended TSA implement standardized job descriptions, better training and permanent assignments for its field HR staff, among other measures. \u201cWe believe these will ensure a stronger field HR staff who are better equipped to meet the needs of TSOs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security looked at challenges plaguing the TSA workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":55,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,55,38,106,11,31,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2081],"class_list":["post-22256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-career","category-congress","category-daily-brief","category-fedlife","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KJHTKDOKWVEINDBGWOIV6ORLB4","arc_canonical_url":"\/fedlife\/career\/2019\/05\/23\/hearing-ids-staffing-issues-at-the-transportation-security-administration\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n