The increase in absentee levels was not 1-2%. The absentee level has increase multiple times higher than 1-2% above from what it was in the first week of January last year.

An increase of 1-2% from a comparable period would be something like a 1% absentee rate going to 1.1% or 1.2%. Going from a 1-2% absentee rate to a 3% absentee rate is a 50+% increase in the absentee rate. Personally, I find the industrial action that is going on with the German screeners at some airports to be more disruptive than what I'm experiencing with whatever TSA delays may be attributable in part to TSA absentee rates having risen during the federal government shutdown.

I have long believed that airport security screening should be the responsibility of the airport/airlines and I hope this shutdown makes those parties reconsider having government screeners doing their work. I have no issue with a regulatory agency but direct screening should not be a government function.

I'm willing to suffer for a time if this shutdown helps to change some minds on the subject.

I doubt it will change, this is a jobs program more than anything else.

Any latest field reports?
 

Scrolling through this thread I see a lot of discussion about everything but the reality on the ground. Has anyone flown in the past day or so who could enlighten me as to what it's really like? As has been mentioned in this thread, there's been a lot of spin (TSA's tweet, for example; I take everything TSA says with a kilogram of salt), but I've not seen too much reporting (here or elsewhere) on actual experiences.

I had a colleague not come to a meeting in New York from Atlanta since apparently ATL is a cluster ... but I've no idea. I'm flying out of IAD early tomorrow morning (Friday) ... wondering just how much I should alter my routine (which, as a pre-check person is designed to maximize my sleeping and minimize airport time :) )

So what's the real scoop?

The most alarming report I have seen was out of Palm Springs.

TSA OFFICIAL THREATENS TO CLASSIFY WORKERS AS AWOL AS SHUTDOWN ‘SICKOUT’ LOOMS

Sorry, but I don't have much sympathy for TSOs faking being sick.

1) You're almost certain to get all of your back pay when the shutdown is over. Ford and GMC employees who were laid off just weeks before the holidays don't have that to look forward to.

2) I've been in a job where I was classified as 'essential'. I knew exactly what it meant. There were people who refused to accept an 'essential' position because they didn't want to or couldn't handle a possible, even if unlikely, situation where they couldn't take discretionary time off or where they might get a delayed paycheck. Don't like the constraints of being an 'essential' worker, find another job.

3) I would really like to hear how many of the other essential government workers currently not getting a paycheck are skipping work. . If nothing out of the ordinary is going on at TSA, then there is no reason for that agency's absenteeism rates should be any higher than at any other essential agency. If it is higher, I would suggest poor or AWOL management is at fault. It seems to me that TSA's best defense against this 'fake news' would be to release figures showing us that its absenteeism rate is well within normal range. The fact that TSA could so easily refute this 'rumor' but chooses not to do so makes me disinclined to believe them.

Does anyone know how this alleged vicious 'rumor' got started?


Didn't someone tell him that TSA HQ says this is all spin and 'fake news'?

On 1) above - to clarify, the excepted employees (those who must continue to work during the shutdown) are 100% guaranteed to receive pay when funding is finally approved. The government incurs an obligation by accepting the benefit of those employees' services and is legally bound to pay them; the government cannot accept voluntary services other than in limited circumstances. (Not that it would suck any less to keep coming to work when your paycheck is in limbo - especially this time when one side of the shutdown standoff seems OK with letting it drag on indefinitely.)

Non-excepted employees (those who aren't required to work and are furloughed instead) aren't guaranteed backpay but most likely will receive it based on past shutdown history.

Thank you - I was not aware of that distinction.

Yes, but let's be clear that autoworkers who were laid off are getting severance packages, and had higher average compensation, so presumably more of a safety net.

More to the point, a TSO has ongoing expenses to support their ability to work: child care, gas or bus fare, etc. The autoworker isn't going to work, so doesn't have to pay these.

MIA closing terminal due to shortage of TSA screeners. Will TSA keep claiming sick-outs are no higher or only slightly higher than normal?

As shutdown keeps TSA screeners home, Miami’s airport is closing off a terminal

Severance packages get quickly eaten up funding COBRA medical and a job search - a tough job search when you are competing with tens of thousands of co-workers with no guarantee of ever again finding employment in the same line of work.

If TSOs are living paycheck-to-paycheck, perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to hold essential positions. If they think taking their chances working for civilian companies like GM or Ford is a better deal, then nothing stops them from changing employers. f

They have no right to put my safety at risk.

Just the usual seasonal uptick attributable to flu and post-holiday recovery.

Yes, I'm sure that explains everything.

I get that not getting a paycheck can play havoc for people who have no savings or emergency funds stashed away. Hopefully they will reach out to family, churches, and such before falling victim to payday lenders. I've checked some of those outfits out and effective interest on a loan can go over 600% APR when all fees and charges are figured in. I wonder if they bust kneecaps too?

It really doesn't seem likely that all or even a significant number of those TSOs calling in sick are actually sick or have suddenly have a crisis at home. It appears that the FSD of at least one airport agrees with me.

A huge part of accepting an 'essential' position is having your household affairs in order. Military folks are confronted with the same issues as TSOs and they are expected to have their affairs in order and to be prepared to deploy at a moment's notice. If folks are living paycheck-to-paycheck and have complicated home lives that can interfere with their readiness to serve, then they should not be working at TSA (or serving in our military).

Don't focus on your views of the TSA as that is a separate policy issue and perhaps OMNI territory. Air traffic controllers face the same problem and they are a lot better paid, have a lot more skills and there are few, if any, who argue against the need for them (at least in the near to mid-term).

Instead, focus on the question of whether it is fair to require someone to work without pay. That is where the comparisons to private sector layoffs fall apart. One can work for 40 years at a plant, the company becomes insolvent and is dissolved and all one gets is a priority claim in bankruptcy on the last week's wages. That may be terrible, but nobody shows up and tells those workers that they must continue to work and support a family but also not be paid.