{"id":876733,"date":"2025-10-11T00:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/sean-duffy-warns-air-traffic-controllers-they-wont-be-paid-if-they-call-in-sick\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T00:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:12:01","slug":"sean-duffy-warns-air-traffic-controllers-they-wont-be-paid-if-they-call-in-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/sean-duffy-warns-air-traffic-controllers-they-wont-be-paid-if-they-call-in-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Duffy Warns Air Traffic Controllers They Won’t Be Paid If They Call In Sick"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Topline<\/h2>\n

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\u2014intimidating rhetoric aviation experts say could backfire.<\/p>\n

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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)<\/span><\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Key Facts<\/h2>\n
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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.<\/p>\n

Asked by host Stuart Varney whether his agency will pay air traffic controllers who call in sick, Duffy responded, \u201cNo, we\u2019re not,\u201d adding that controllers would be paid after the shutdown ends \u201cfor the time that they put in.\u201d <\/p>\n

Duffy is \u201cplaying with fire,\u201d 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 \u201cnobody goes anywhere. I mean, good luck flying anywhere at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are processes and procedures in place to deal with the inappropriate use of sick leave,\u201d the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Forbes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Are Air Traffic Controllers\u2019 Sick Calls Disrupting Air Travel?<\/h2>\n

Duffy told Varney while the vast majority of air traffic controllers were reporting to work, \u201c10% of them are lashing out,\u201d adding that before the shutdown, controller staffing shortages were responsible for 5% of flight delays but \u201cat this time it’s 53%\u2014so a massive rise in the delays are coming from controllers who aren’t coming to work. It’s a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

Crucial Quote<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe absolute last thing you want to say to these guys is, \u2018hey, we’re just not going to pay you.\u2019 You just took away any motivation I had at all,\u201d 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. \u201cYou just cannot replace these guys\u201d with other controllers and \u201cthere is no such thing as plug and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is It Illegal For Air Traffic Controllers To Call In Sick?<\/h2>\n

NATCA has warned its 19,000 members that coordinated \u201csick outs\u201d 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. \u201cI don\u2019t 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,\u201d 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. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Are Air Traffic Controllers Going To Be Paid?<\/h2>\n

Like Transportation Security Administration officers<\/a> who screen baggage at airport security checkpoints, air traffic controllers are \u201cexcepted\u201d from furloughs and work without pay during the shutdown. By law, they will have their back-pay restored after the funding lapse ends\u2014although President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that might not happen<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/h2>\n

Trump Says \u2018Democrat Delays\u2019 Are Hitting Airports: Here\u2019s Why Unpaid Air Traffic Controllers Could Be Key In Ending Shutdown<\/a> (Forbes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Suzanne Rowan Kelleher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2014intimidating 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":876734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3628,359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-duffy","category-warns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}