Many screeners, Federal Air Marshals and other TSA employees work at large airports that can take a long time to enter and proceed to a worksite. Image: Picturesque Japan/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA bill now ready for a vote in the full House would order a study of whether the time TSA employees spend getting to their work stations after arriving at their facility—and time between leaving their work stations and leaving the facility—should be paid as regular working hours.
Many airports where screeners, Federal Air Marshals and other TSA employees work are so large that they “might spend upwards of 45 minutes from entering airport grounds to arriving at their duty station,” says a report on HR-8662, which passed the Homeland Security Committee on a voice vote.
“This legislation could help TSA reduce the commuting burden on their employees while also ensuring efficiency of their airport operations. Decreasing the commuting burden on TSA employees could also make TSA jobs more enticing to job seekers and improve the retention and career advancement of existing employees,” it says.
The study would have to address the time needed by TSA employees at small hub airports, medium hub airports, and large hub airports to travel between their regular duty locations and airport parking lots and bus and transit stops; whether they could use their mobile phones, location data, or other means to report their arrival and departure from the parking lots and bus and transit stops; the estimated cost of treating onsite travel time as on duty time, including considering the time as basic pay for retirement purposes; and more.
While the measure applies only to the TSA, the same issue sometimes arises at other large federal facilities such as DoD bases requiring substantial time in transit internally.
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