TSA officials say absence rate of airport screeners has stabilized after its peak – just days before millions of passengers are expected to fly for the holiday weekend
- TSA officials say 6.1 percent of its airport screeners missed work on Tuesday, which is down from the 7.7 percent on Sunday
- The percentage of TSA officers missing work rose steadily last week but has declined slightly this week, according to the agency
- It comes just days before the three-day holiday weekend that is likely to bring bigger airport crowds
- TSA could be facing a test by Friday of its ability to process airport crowds with fewer workers
TSA officials say the rate of airport screeners missing work during the partial government shutdown has finally stabilized just in the time for huge crowds expected this holiday weekend.
The Transportation Security Administration said on Wednesday that 6.1 percent of its airport screeners missed work on Tuesday.
That is nearly double the absentee rate on the same day last year but a decline from the peak sick-out rate during the shutdown, which surged to 7.7 percent on Sunday.
The percentage of TSA officers missing work rose steadily last week but has declined slightly this week, according to the agency.
A TSA worker helps passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Wednesday during the partial government shutdown
TSA could be facing a test by Friday of its ability to process airport crowds with fewer workers.
Last year, nearly eight million people flew between Friday and Monday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
While that is less than the 9 million who flew around the Memorial Day holiday, it is busier than most January weekends.
It comes as a TSA official said screeners this week should have received $500 bonuses and, for some, an extra day’s pay, for working over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske announced last weekend that the agency would pay each officer a $500 bonus and that TSA processed pay for screeners who worked December 22, the first day of the shutdown.
An agency spokesman said officers should have received the money by Wednesday.
Passengers wait in a TSA line at New York’s JFK airport on Thursday as the longest government shutdown in US history continues and impacts travelling through airports
TSA could be facing a test by Friday of its ability to process airport crowds with fewer workers. Pictured above is the long lines at JFK airport on Thursday
Pekoske said he was able to make the payments ‘because of unique authorities provided TSA in law.’
He said he hoped they would ease the financial hardship facing many of the workers.
Most of them earn between $26,000 and $35,000 a year, according to a TSA spokesman.
Meanwhile, air traffic controllers who are also working without pay lost an effort to force the government to pay them.
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected their union’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Treasury Department employees’ union argued that the Trump administration is violating the Constitution and federal labor law by requiring members to work without pay. Another hearing in the case is set for January 31.
The ranks of unpaid federal workers are growing.
This week, the IRS said it will recall thousands of workers to handle tax returns, and the Federal Aviation Administration plans to bring 2,200 safety inspectors back to work.
Long security lines snake around a terminal at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Monday with wait times exceeding 60 minutes
Miami International Airport closed down one concourse for most of Saturday and Sunday due to TSA agent shortages. The concourse’s security checkpoint is seen closed here on Saturday