Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox Business viewers Thursday that air traffic controllers who call in sick during the shutdown will not be paid and could be fired, intimidating rhetoric that aviation experts say could backfire.
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Appearing on Fox Business Thursday morning, Duffy said air traffic controllers calling in sick have accounted for more than half of all flight delays in the U.S. during the government shutdown so far.
When asked by host Stuart Varney if his agency will pay air traffic controllers who call in sick, Duffy responded, “No, we won’t,” adding that controllers would be paid after the shutdown ends “for as long as they work.”
Duffy is “playing with fire,” one air traffic controller told Forbes, adding that if a handful of controllers at a major East Coast airport call in sick, the corridor grinds to a halt and “no one goes anywhere. I mean, good luck flying anywhere.”
“There are processes and procedures in place to address inappropriate use of sick leave,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Forbes.
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Are sick leaves for air traffic controllers disrupting air travel?
Duffy told Varney that while the vast majority of air traffic controllers were showing up for work, “10% of them are angry”, adding that before the lockdown, controller staff shortages were responsible for 5% of flight delays, but “currently it’s 53%, so a massive increase in delays is due to controllers not showing up for work. It’s a problem.”
Crucial ideals
“The last thing you want to say to these guys is, ‘Hey, we’re just not going to pay you.’ They just took away all motivation from me,” the air traffic controller told Forbes, adding that he and his colleagues are trained to work at specific facilities, which requires knowledge of the airspace and hundreds of frequencies. “You just can’t replace these guys” with other drivers and “there’s no immediate solution.”
Is it illegal for air traffic controllers to call in sick?
NATCA has warned its 19,000 members that coordinated sick leave is illegal. However, union officials and individual air traffic controllers have told Forbes that the uncertainty of not knowing when the next paycheck will arrive adds to the stress of working in an already overburdened system. “I don’t think there should be any question about the reasons why someone calls in sick or not. And the same work rules apply regarding accrued sick time and personal time off,” Chad Kendall, associate professor and FAA chief instructor in the Department of Aviation and Aerospace Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver, told Forbes. “Using these individuals as bargaining chips or questioning the validity of sick leave, I don’t think that’s the rhetoric we want to hear from any party at the moment.”
When will air traffic controllers get paid?
Like Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers who screen luggage at airport security checkpoints, air traffic controllers are exempt from furloughs and working without pay during the shutdown. By law, they will be given back pay once the forbearance period ends, although President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that this may not happen. Air traffic controllers are scheduled to receive partial pay on Tuesday, October 14, and zero pay two weeks later, Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, told Forbes.
This article was originally published by Forbes US
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