Comes After Nine Months Of Negotiations

It isn't often you see the terms "FAA," "NATCA" and "agreement" in the same sentence.  We should probably enjoy it while we can.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Wednesday it signed an employment agreement with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), covering approximately 1,200 Engineers and Architects who are responsible for the planning, design and installation of facilities, systems and equipment to ensure the safety of the National Airspace System.

Negotiations took place over the course of nine months, and the agency reports the agreement was "overwhelmingly" ratified by the union membership.

This is the second voluntary agreement the FAA has reached with labor unions representing agency employees in the past several months. A national agreement was signed on May 24, 2007, with the National Association of Government Employees Local (NAGE) covering over 200 air traffic assistants who provide support for air traffic operations in terminal and en route facilities.

Unlike most federal agencies, the FAA has special legislative authority to negotiate over pay and a broad range of personnel matters. A major FAA bargaining goal in both negotiations was to bring more employees under the pay-for-performance plan.

As a result of these two labor agreements, the FAA will increase the percentage of employees in its pay-for-performance plan to 84 percent.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.natca.org