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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing key frontline homeland security employees today applauded House approval of a measure that would permit Transportation Security Administration(TSA) employees to voluntarily wear protective equipment, including masks, during a public health emergency such as the present swine flu epidemic.

The language is contained in H.R. 2200, the TSA Authorization Bill, and came in the form of an amendment offered by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce.

“Approval of the Lynch amendment is a key step in righting an ongoing wrong,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents thousands of Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at airports nationwide.

President Kelley has been leading the battle to win the right for homeland security workers to wear protective respirator masks in the performance of their duties. NTEU’s work on this issue helped lead to a mid-May hearing by the Federal Workforce Subcommittee, where Kelley strongly pressed the case for worker protections at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“While today’s action is a positive step for TSA employees, there is more that needs to be done to protect the health of frontline security employees and their families. This should be extended to all DHS employees, including those at U.S. Customs and Border Security,” she added.

At the hearing, Rep. Lynch promised legislative assistance. He was visibly angered during the session by some of the DHS management testimony as well as the contents of NTEU-provided affidavits from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees stating they were prevented by their managers from wearing a protective mask or were made to remove a mask they had decided on their own to wear in the best interest of their health and that of their families.

Initially, he sought to offer an amendment to the TSA authorization bill providing rights regarding personal protective equipment for all DHS employees. For now, however, he could offer only the TSA-directed amendment, since the authorization measure covers only TSA.

President Kelley has been sharply critical—including in a letter to a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official earlier this week—about the continuing failure of DHS to articulate a clear policy on the rights of employees in this vital health matter.

What’s more, the NTEU leader has said, “It is clear that, across the country, CBP and TSA managers have been enforcing an unwritten prohibition on the voluntary use of respirators.” She repeatedly has blamed the DHS unwillingness to permit employees to use the masks—despite the obvious health risk—on a fear of alarming the traveling public.

In her letter earlier this week to DHS Under Secretary Elaine Duke, President Kelley sought information on the specifics of the agency’s policy with respect to the voluntary wearing of respirators by employees performing their passenger processing duties who want to limit their risk of H1N1 infection, and the specifics of the policy regarding employees who must be in close contact with individuals likely infected with the virus.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 22,000-employee CBP workforce at the nation’s 327 land, air and sea ports of entry and thousands of TSA Officers at airports nationwide.