Wait... Training WASN'T Mandated Before????
Representing Transportation Security
Administration employees across the nation, American Federation of
Government Employees National President John Gage testified
November 1 before the House Homeland Security Committee
Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure
Protection on the need for enhanced training and technology, among
other issues.
"TSA has made many critical decisions that have created or
exacerbated obstacles to the ability of Transportation Security
Officers to carry out their duties, including the availability and
quality of training," Gage said. "TSOs point to understaffing at
airports, the lack of relevance and low quality of training, TSA's
failure to fully invest in new technology, and TSA's institutional
disdain for comments and suggestions from TSOs that can help spot
and prevent threats to air travel.
"The Aviation Transportation Security Act -- under which TSA was
created -- mandated that TSOs receive 100 hours of classroom and
on-the-job training before they begin working, and an average of
three hours of training per week after hire," Gage explained. "The
Government Accountability Office described that at least one of the
three hours is 'to be devoted to X-ray image interpretation and the
other two hours to screening techniques, review of standard
operating procedures, or other mandatory administrative training,
such as ethics and privacy act training.' However, our TSO members
have reported that other than the training they received prior to
beginning their jobs screening passengers and baggage, TSA has
consistently failed to provide the training it is required by
law."
According to a February 2007 GAO report, under TSA's Staffing
Allocation Model "training is relegated to times when there is
surplus staffing and should occur during 'less busy times.'" Rather
than construct a model that allows times for TSOs to receive
required training and master new operating procedures and
technology, training is relegated to whatever time is left -- even
if that time is none at all, Gage argued.
Gage further went on to discuss TSA's lack of new technology,
stating that "technology that would enable TSOs to detect potential
weapons not readily apparent to the human eye is available" and
that while "both GAO and the DHS Inspector General have called on
TSA to invest in and deploy technology that will assist TSOs in
performing their screening duties, just this October, GAO found
that TSA 'generally' did not achieve the goal of deploying
checkpoint technologies to address vulnerabilities."
Gage also touched upon issues of employee input and value,
including a 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey that showed 54% of
the TSA workforce stated that creativity and innovation are not
rewarded at TSA and only 38% of the workforce believed they had
"sufficient resources" to do their jobs.
"Too often TSOs report they were laughed at by supervisors when
they requested additional training and speaking up about an
alternative process or pointing out a problem was a certain path to
retaliation, which could include either actual termination or
harassing the worker until they quit," Gage said.
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