Topline
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 aviation experts say could backfire.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned air traffic controllers that they would not be paid if they called in sick. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker)
Getty Images
Key Facts
Appearing on Fox Business on Thursday morning, Duffy said that 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.
Asked by host Stuart Varney whether his agency will pay air traffic controllers who call in sick, Duffy responded, “No, we’re not,” adding that controllers would be paid after the shutdown ends “for the time that they put in.”
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 out sick, the corridor grinds to a halt and “nobody goes anywhere. I mean, good luck flying anywhere at all.”
“There are processes and procedures in place to deal with the inappropriate use of sick leave,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Forbes.
Are Air Traffic Controllers’ Sick Calls Disrupting Air Travel?
Duffy told Varney while the vast majority of air traffic controllers were reporting to work, “10% of them are lashing out,” adding that before the shutdown, controller staffing shortages were responsible for 5% of flight delays but “at this time it’s 53%—so a massive rise in the delays are coming from controllers who aren’t coming to work. It’s a problem.”
Crucial Quote
“The absolute last thing you want to say to these guys is, ‘hey, we’re just not going to pay you.’ You just took away any motivation I had at all,” the air traffic controller told Forbes, adding that he and his colleagues are trained to work in specific facilities, which requires knowing the airspace as well as hundreds of frequencies. “You just cannot replace these guys” with other controllers and “there is no such thing as plug and play.”
Is It Illegal For Air Traffic Controllers To Call In Sick?
NATCA has warned its 19,000 members that coordinated “sick outs” are illegal. But union officials and individual air traffic controllers have told Forbes that the uncertainty of not knowing when the next paycheck is coming is adding to the stress of working in an already strained system. “I don’t think there shouldn’t be any questioning the motives behind somebody calling out sick or not. And the same work rules apply as far as accrued sick time and personal time off,” Chad Kendall, an associate professor and FAA chief instructor in the Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, told Forbes. “To use these individuals as a bargaining chip or to question the validity of sick call outs, I don’t think is the rhetoric that we want to hear from any side of the aisle at this point.”
When Are Air Traffic Controllers Going To Be Paid?
Like Transportation Security Administration officers who screen baggage at airport security checkpoints, air traffic controllers are “excepted” from furloughs and work without pay during the shutdown. By law, they will have their back-pay restored after the funding lapse ends—although President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that might not happen. Air traffic controllers are scheduled to receive a partial paycheck on Tuesday, Oct. 14, and a zero paycheck two weeks later, Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, told Forbes.
Further Reading
Read More
Suzanne Rowan Kelleher