Extensive Furloughs Planned At The Agency

In a DOT document released September 27, the department says that extensive furloughs can be expected at the FAA under the government shutdown which began Tuesday.

The document indicates that 30,556 FAA employees will remain on the job, while 15,514 will be required to take unpaid leave. The document indicates that certain personnel are required to provide support services to safety personnel and to provide for the orderly shutdown of FAA activities. In general, it will take approximately four hours to shut down most of the agency’s non-excepted activities, with the possible exception of activities necessary to issue stop work orders on contracts and employee furlough notices.

FAA expects that the orderly shutdown work of contracting officers will be done within one day. Other activities may take two to three days to complete and will involve human resources and budget/finance personnel. Individuals providing support services to safety positions will report to work to provide employees excepted for the purpose directly protecting life and property with necessary legal, information technology, labor relation, and contract support services.

Also, initially the safety workforce would be limited to safety critical staff whose job is to perform urgent continued operational activity to protect life and property. If extended beyond a limited duration, FAA would bring back additional parts of the workforce to better manage safety risk. A total of 2,800 would be excepted based on the percentage of continued operational safety work. Employees doing certification and operational support work would remain on furlough.

The suspended activities include:

• Development of new air traffic control specialists not certified to work a position
• Aviation rulemaking
• Facility security inspections, evaluations, audits and inspections
• Routine personnel security background investigations
• Development, operational testing, and evaluation of NextGen technologies
• Development of NextGen safety standards
• Air traffic performance analysis
• Capital planning for FAA facilities and equipment
• Investment planning and financial analysis
• Dispute resolution
• Audit and evaluation
• Financial operations, controls, reporting and accountability
• Most budgeting functions (except those necessary to provide necessary services to offices funded with multi-year appropriations and contract authority)
• Employee drug testing program
• Law enforcement assistance support
• Most administrative support functions not required for support of life and safety “excepted” positions
• Congressional liaison services

Overall, the DOT will furlough 18,481 workers across its various departments.

The agency says that FAA employees will be advised to listen to public broadcasts for information that a congressional action has been taken to fund the government, and they will be expected to return to work on their next regular duty day. In addition, FAA will place return to duty information on the FAA employee website, and FAA’s toll-free number. FAA managers can also call employees to ensure staff members are aware they have been recalled to duty.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.dot.gov