Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Marion C. Blakey called for federal mediation to help the agency reach a voluntary contract agreement with the air traffic controllers union which comes after four and a half months of negotiations.
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.
