House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va.,
has written a letter to Admiral David Stone, Acting
Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration
asking him to ensure that TSA brings closure to employee
complaints, and reminding him that the committee would
continue to watch as screener management develops.
The hiring flexibilities granted to TSA, which was created
following 9/11, resulted in a lot of quick hires, but also
many complaints from current and former employees alleging
that TSA violated labor laws, and that it failed to give
out information about complaint procedures, according to
the letter.
It said it took into consideration that in the last ten
months of 2002, TSA reviewed over 1.7 million applications
and hired and trained more than 55,000 federal screeners,
at about 440 airports both inside and outside the
continental United States. “We …understand that a
complaint office was not fully staffed to take these types
of complaints at the time the screener force was in
transition,” said the letter, also stating the need for a
stronger complaint process.
At the same time the letter praised TSA for doubling its
Office of Civil Rights staff in response to the large
backlog of equal opportunity personnel issues, and for
offering priority employment to incumbent screeners who
reapply and pass exams and background checks through July
11, 2004, over non-current TSA employees.
