Independent Firm Validates High Cost of Controller Compensation
- Cost of Protracted Contract Negotiations Approaches $2
Million
The FAA has announced
that an international financial and accounting services firm
validated the agency’s calculation that the average 2005 air
traffic controller compensation package exceeded $166,000. Other
independently validated figures included controller compensation
increasing 75 percent between 1998 and 2005 and the doubling of the
wage gap between controllers and all other FAA employees during the
same period.
FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey ordered the agency’s
figures to be independently validated to counter claims by the air
traffic controllers union that the agency’s controller
compensation figures are inflated. In a few instances, the outside
review found that the FAA actually underestimated the cost of
controllers’ compensation. The review of the FAA’s
calculations determined that average 2005 controller compensation
was not $165,935 but rather $166,289.
Blakey also detailed the financial toll of the ongoing
negotiations to the agency. As negotiations approach the six-month
mark, costs associated with negotiations have risen to nearly $1.7
million. Negotiations have been conducted at neutral sites both in
the Washington, DC metro area and cities throughout the U.S.
“We want to remove any doubt about how costly the current
contract has been to the taxpayer,” said Blakey.
“At a time when our aviation system requires greater
investment to improve safety and efficiency, we cannot afford to
argue about the obvious—the controllers’ union got a
lucrative deal in 1998. We want to focus our efforts on reaching a
voluntary agreement that is fair to both controllers and the
taxpayer.”
An independent firm
that reviewed the FAA’s calculations found that the cost data
used by the agency to calculate the average cost per controller
reconciled to the agency’s accounting system which supports
the FAA’s audited financial statements. Last year, the FAA
received its fourth consecutive clean audit from the Department of
Transportation’s Inspector General and KPMG on its financial
reporting.
The independent validation and the rising cost of negotiations
come at an important time as the FAA and the controllers union
remain far apart on the issues of compensation and work rules that
have generated premium pay during the life of the current
contract.
The FAA’s contract proposal maintains the base-pay of
current controllers, who are among the highest paid federal
workers. Additional automatic pay increases will not continue, but
current controllers will still be eligible for annual, merit-based
pay increases. The agency’s proposal also provides managers
with greater flexibility to staff, schedule and operate air traffic
facilities in order to ensure staff levels are adjusted to meet
daily, seasonal and long-term changes in air traffic, Blakey added.
The FAA is also proposing to bring in new hires at a more realistic
pay scale, one that narrows the pay gap between controllers and the
rest of the FAA’s safety focused employees and is pegged to
the civil service pay scale.
“Our air traffic controllers are and will continue to be
highly competent, highly compensated professionals,” said
Blakey.
“But the hard
facts are that the taxpayers and travelers cannot afford the
union’s current proposal.”
The union is proposing to raise the average total compensation
of all controllers above $200,000 in the next five years and add
$2.6 billion to the FAA’s payroll over the life of the
contract, Blakey said. The union’s proposal also would limit
the agency’s ability to fund hiring of a new generation of
air traffic controllers over the next decade, Blakey warned.
The union is calling to maintain the current contract that is
laden with premium pay as well as a shorter workday of 7 hours,
which includes a 30 minute paid lunch break. This 12 percent
decrease in productivity comes when controller time-on-position,
the actual time spent controlling aircraft, at the FAA’s
largest facilities already averages less than 4.5 hours per
day.
The FAA began contract negotiations with the union on July 13.
The existing contract expired on September 30, but has an evergreen
clause that allows the original contract to remain in place so long
as talks continue.