Taxpayers have to come up with more than $100 million - TSA loses lawsuit to Federal Air Marshals

WTSP.com-10News-Tampa Bay ^ | 7/15/2011 | Mike Deeson

[PieterCasparzen]

Tampa, Florida--It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when.

This Federal Air Marshal is talking about another 9-11 type attack and he puts some of the blame on the Transportation Security Administration.

He says it has to do with overtime.

According to the Air Marshal, whose identity we have to protect to keep him from being from being fired for talking to us, problems started when upper management started scheduling the air marshal's to work in excess of 40 hours a week, but the agency refused to pay overtime and that decision is costing you millions of dollars.

The Air Marshal says they went to the administration first and said this is not right, you are supposed to be paying overtime if we worked past a certain amount of time. He says they said no you're wrong and if your going to sue you're going to see that you don't have a leg to stand on.

But the Air Marshal's weren't deterred and filed a federal lawsuit not only for the money, but also because of the extra hours they say they couldn't be as effective on the job and they felt they needed to be.

He and several other Marshals say they can tell they are working tired. In addition several Marshals testified to congress as far back as 2006 that fatigue was a major problem because the agency didn't have to worry about paying overtime, it allowed the TSA to avoid hiring extra federal agents.

He says you can see by the numbers, they don't have near enough. Although the amount of marshals is classified, the Marshal says they are covering a very low fraction of flights going over the United States at any one time.

And several say that puts the flying public at risk. While the general public doesn't know, they think they've got the Federal Air Marshals who are alert and are being treated well, they say it is not true.

But the TSA and the Federal Air Marshal Service, particularly the central Florida office, as we have reported before, had almost a hostile working relationship with its employees. The office decided it could work the Federal Air Marshals as many hours as it wanted each week without paying overtime, but a federal judge has said no you can't and now you're paying for that mistake with your tax dollars.

And as the Air Marshal explains now we are $106 million later and they see the errors of their ways. The $106 million is the amount a federal court awarded the Air Marshals after they filed their suit against the agency.

And while the TSA says," The scope of this lawsuit was limited to the procedures Federal Air Marshals were compensated for hours worked; not how Federal Air Marshals are scheduled for mission flights. The TSA adds this decision has not affected Federal Air Marshal Deployments. However the Air Marshals say the agency isn't phased by the huge payout. They say as long as they don't have to pay it out of their pocket, they don't care, it is taxpayer money.

But keep in mind, as we first reported a year ago; this is the same office that is under investigation for a hostile work place where managers played a jeopardy game making disparaging remarks about black, hispanic, women and gay federal air marshals.

And the Marshals say all they wanted was to be treated fairly.

And while the air marshals say they haven't been treated fairly in the past, there are now 106 million reasons why the agency might treat them the way they want to be treated.

[PieterCasparzen]

We spent $800 million on air marshals. If one assumes an average total cost per employee of $150,000, that would allow for a staff of 5,333 employees, which would mean that perhaps half of all flights should have an air marshal on them, which is definitely not the case. If this were left to the private sector, and they were unfettered by prohibitions against profiling, and could essentially kick @$$ and take names on flights and passengers were required to behave normally during flights, the private sector airlines could use their security efforts as a marketing point and the money they spent would be well worth it since they would be working on keeping their own security records clean and impressive.

[PieterCasparzen]

Salaried employees can be classifed either exempt or non-exempt, meaning exempt from over time or not exempt. Non-exempt requires a minimum salary, which I am sure that Air Marshals earn. It also requires that they have decision-making authority, i.e., the low-level employee can’t be classified as exempt. I would think it very straightforward to structure the job so an Air Marshal was considered exempt, and to pay them a performance bonus. It boggles the mind, actually, to think that Air Marshals are not paid as Salaried, Exempt employees, since they have a position of extreme responsibility and would be forced to make decisions on their own.

[HIDEK6]

If I had written this essay as an assignment in my high school English class, I would have gotten an F.

[Blueflag]

We don’t need FAMs on US flagged carriers. Doesn’t hurt to have them. But we don’t require them.

The passengers will never again allow a hijacking. There might be attempts, and they might get ugly, bloody and even deadly. But the passengers AND CREW *will* suitably resist.

It’s that simple.

I fly almost every week. I speak from experience and conversation with other frequent fliers and flight crew members.

[KarlInOhio]

It boggles the mind, actually, to think that Air Marshals are not paid as Salaried, Exempt employees, since they have a position of extreme responsibility and would be forced to make decisions on their own.

I did a quick check of exempt vs. non-exempt. There are four categories I saw which could be exempt.

1. Executive - unless the air marshal supervises other marshals, this probably doesn't apply.
2. Administrative - nope.
3. Outside salesperson - nope.
4. Professional. (from http://www.allbusiness.com/government/employment-regulations-overtime-pay/11393-1.html) Performance of work requires advanced knowledge acquired by a prolonged course, or primarily performs original and creative work in a recognized field or artistic endeavor or is a teacher. Consistently exercises discretion and judgment.

Point 4 might apply, but I think it would be a stretch for the general air marshal riding in a plane waiting for trouble. The cop on the street is generally non-exempt and gets overtime. I don't know about FBI agents and other federal police.

[Soul of the South]

I don’t get the complaint about overtime. I’ve been a “management/professional” level worker in the corporate world for 30 years and a private contractor for 2 years. I work 10-14 hours every day plus some time on weekends. I’ve never received pay for overtime.

In contrast I have a family member who works for the local government in a professional job. She is paid overtime for hours over 37.5. I notice that every government office - federal, state, local — empties at 4:30 or 5:00 pm each day.

Conclusion — the producers in the private sector put in whatever hours it takes to get the job done for their base pay. Government and union workers earn overtime. What is wrong with this picture?

[Max in Utah]

My 6th grade English teacher would have assigned me extra work... rewriting the article.

[blueunicorn6]

This isn’t about air safety, it’s about hiring more federal employees so they’ll pay more union dues to the Democrats. Here’s an idea, put armed, uniformed military on the flights. No hijacking then. It will never happen, because it’s not about flight safety, it’s about hiring more federal GS employees so they can pay more union dues to the Democrat party.

[thatjoeguy]

Upper management (and I mean upper) are the only positions that can be considered exempt from overtime pay. That’s according to what I’ve researched from past issues I’ve had.

Even salaried employees must be paid overtime which is calculated off what the hours per week the salary is based on. If the salary position is based on a 50 hour week, anything over 50 hours is to be paid as overtime pay.