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Washington, D.C.—As the House prepares to take up an amendment allowing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees to voluntarily wear protective equipment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has again failed to articulate a clear policy on worker rights to wear respiratory masks as a guard against swine flu in their frontline security work, the leader of the union representing tens of thousands of DHS employees said today.

In a letter to a senior DHS official, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) took issue with a message regarding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to employees last Friday from DHS Under Secretary Elaine Duke.

Emphasizing that NTEU “has been very frustrated with the lack of a clear, written policy on the voluntary use of PPE, particularly respirators,” the NTEU leader noted that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and TSA “have enforced an unwritten prohibition on the voluntary use of respirators.”

“The all-employee message you sent on Friday (May 29) still does not state what the policy is with regard to voluntary use of respirators,” Kelley wrote, “but rather states ‘DHS will continue to follow existing (Centers for Disease Control) and (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requirements for voluntary use of respiratory protection in managing its employees and PPE.’”

Later this week, the House is expected to take up H.R. 2200, the TSA Authorization Bill, including an amendment to be offered by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) that would permit TSA employees to wear protective masks in the event of an emergency. NTEU requested that the House Rules Committee permit the amendment to be offered.

In her letter to Under Secretary Duke, President Kelley wrote that “employees deserve to know what the policies are they are expected to follow. Your all-employee message does not provide them with clear written guidance.” She posed these questions, and sought a prompt reply from the DHS executive:

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“What is DHS’ policy with respect to the voluntary wearing of respirators by (CBP) employees and (TSA) employees performing passenger processing duties who want to limit their risk of H1N1 infection?” and

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“What is DHS’ policy with respect to wearing of respirators by (CBP) employees and (TSA) employees who must be in close contact with individuals likely infected with the H1N1 virus?”

Since the swine flu outbreak captured international headlines, President Kelley has been leading the effort to secure the right of frontline homeland security workers to wear a mask—at their discretion—while they perform their duties.

She carried that message to a hearing last month of Rep. Lynch’s Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, and provided that body with affidavits from 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.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 22,000-employee CBP bargaining unit and thousands of TSA employees at airports across the nation.