Follow-Up: To Retire, or Not?
When we started this news story by
printing a press release from NATCA, we got a response from the FAA, which we
also reported. As we closed that article, we said, "Stay tuned --
this won't end here." We received the following correspondence in
that regard:
In your article, "More Info on 'Chicago Unsafe' Story", there
was a point made by [FAA spokesman] Mr. Molinaro about controller
retirement that was incorrect. [Mr. Molinaro had admitted he didn't
have the figures in front of him, and told us he thought
controllers had to retire at "age 60 or 62" --ed.]
I am a recently-retired air traffic controller (July 2001) with
experience in both Center and tower. I was also member of NATCA
from its inception.
Air traffic controllers are REQUIRED
to retire from active air traffic control duty at age 56. The early
retirement eligibility enables a controller to retire at age 50, as
long as they have at least 20 years of ATC work, or at any age with
25 years of controlling traffic. [The controller may work past this
age if they are "off the boards", i.e., in a staff job. This does
happen in a few cases. There were also a few controllers,
definitely all pre-strike (August 1981) who were not subject to the
mandatory retirement age, exempt from the rule due to the fact that
they were hired prior to its implementation.]
I would estimate that 90% of my peers planned to retire as soon
as possible. A few others planned to work until their kids got
through college. Mr. Molinaro may wish to consider that this is a
different generation than the one Reagan fired in 1981. We are baby
boomers and beyond. The FAA does not have new statistics to plan
by. --Julie Richardson
The FAA Did a Double-Check, and Confirmed Our Reader's
Facts
The FAA's Tony Molinaro checked his
figures and confirmed that Julie's mandatory retirement age (56)
was, "correct -- under federal law, a controller cannot direct
aircraft after reaching his or her 56th birthday, and most do
retire by then."
He said there was a little more to it, though. "However, they
are eligible for retirement after 25 years' service. On average, by
age 50, they reach that 25 years of service. So you can say that
many that are age 50 are eligible to retire."
"However," he continued, "even though they are eligible, our
history shows that most do not retire as soon as they are eligible.
That's mainly because there are economic incentives to stay on to
age 56. Their pension is based on the highest three years of their
salary, so that, if they do stay on to 56, their pension will be
higher. That's what we've been seeing, regarding eligibility and
actual retirement."
NATCA's Been Looking at
This for a Long Time
NATCA's Doug Church says that Julie's '90%' figure "sounds
higher than even I would have guessed; but it doesn't seem too far
out of line." NATCA doesn't have survey numbers on planned
retirements; they monitor eligible retirements. A 1999 NATCA
survey, Church said, projected a retirement peak in 2007, when 8.4%
of the entire workforce would retire. The GAO did a study, that
we reported on last June, on just
that subject. It's referenced below.
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