Mon, Oct 25, 2004
Former Controllers' Union Accuses FAA Of Age
Discrimination
Four air traffic controllers fired by President Ronald Reagan
during the PATCO strike in 1981 have asked a federal judge in
Memphis (TN) for a temporary injunction against the Transportation
Department, saying the FAA has been guilty of age discrimination
since at least 1993.
That's when President Bill Clinton waived the ban on rehiring
PATCO controllers. But, in their filing with the court on Friday,
PATCO President Ron Taylor told ANN that the government has engaged
in a systematic discrimination against his members.
"These alleged discriminatory and unlawful practices include
placing unlawful 'quotas' on the number of PATCO applicants who
could be hired in any year, and making selections without even
comparing the qualifications of the PATCO applicants with other
applicants," said Taylor, in an exclusive statement to Aero-News.
"Since President Clinton lifted the ban, the FAA has hired many
people with no air traffic control experience whatsoever, and many
others who had some minimal military air traffic control
experience, but who were clearly less qualified than the PATCO
applicants."
Since the PATCO ban was
lifted 11 years ago, Taylor said, the FAA has hired approximately
4,000 new controllers. Only 862 of them were PATCO controllers.
The four controllers along with PATCO, say the FAA has shunted
their applications into what's called the "PATCO Inventory." The
suit says every applicant in the "PATCO Inventory" is old enough to
be protected by the government against age discrimination. They
accuse the FAA of wanting to "intentionally exclude these
plaintiffs and other PATCO applicants from consideration under
other hiring processes."
Further, they flat out say the FAA "has made an arbitrary
determination that it will not hire any applicants from the PATCO
Inventory either now or in the future."
"The plaintiffs are not seeking any preferential hiring
consideration," Taylor said in his statement. "All they are seeking
is a court order directing the FAA to accept all legitimate
applications and base its hiring decisions on the relative
qualifications and experience of the applicants as required by
federal law."
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