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Washington, D.C.—Despite changes announced last week to the pay system for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) continued to call for moving TSA employees onto the General Schedule (GS), the pay system covering the bulk of federal employees.

While NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley praised TSA for ending contractor-based performance testing in 2009, she criticized the agency’s ongoing reliance on the misguided Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS) as a tool for measuring performance.

“The PASS system is overly subjective, lacks appropriate measures and contains too many aspects that tend to unfairly trip up employees,” said Kelley. “These are not insignificant complaints. They reflect deep distrust and disillusionment with a pay system impacting workers in a critical function who help keep our nation safe.” Under PASS, employees are rated at five levels and are eligible for merit raises, or a one-time bonus, if they attain ratings at the top three levels.

President Kelley also disputed key claims of an internal agency memorandum, dated Dec. 11, which asserts that TSA employees will receive higher pay raises in 2009 under PASS than they would under the General Schedule. “TSA employees earn a lower average rate of base pay under PASS than most federal employees who are paid under the GS scale,” Kelley said. “And, generally merit increases earned under the GS scale are greater than the merit raises most TSA employees are set to receive next year under PASS.” As workers progress through PASS and the General Schedule, the differences are more dramatic.

According to a PASS report issued by TSA last month, slightly more than 50 percent of all Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) received one of the three lowest performance levels and received either a 1 percent salary increase, a one-time performance bonus of $1,000 or less, or nothing at all. For a TSO earning a typical annual salary of $26,000, a 1 percent salary increase adds up to only $260 per year—or $10 per pay period. The report also showed that an additional 32 percent of TSOs were awarded level four ratings, only to receive a 2 percent merit raise—$520 on a $26,000 annual salary. President Kelley called those amounts “insulting.”

In communications with NTEU, TSA employees nationwide have expressed serious concerns with PASS and how it is randomly applied. Many of them have referred to the system as “unfair,” “subject to favoritism,” “arbitrary,” “impossible to achieve ‘role model’ rating,” “unrealistic” and other similar terms. Kelley said allegations of favoritism and cronyism surround PASS because there is no meaningful way for employees to challenge their ratings.

“Employees need a pay system that they can view with clarity and trust,” Kelley said. “PASS remains a poor substitute for what really is lacking at TSA—a performance appraisal system that is transparent and credible with all TSA employees, and quality leadership that solicits, values and acts upon the ideas of frontline workers.”

NTEU has provided recommendations to both the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress calling for collective bargaining rights for TSA employees and converting them to the classification and pay system outlined in Chapters 51 and 53 of Title 5 with no loss of pay. Collective bargaining and the elimination of PASS are part of NTEU’s comprehensive five-point representation plan for TSA employees nationwide. The plan also calls for adequate staffing and fair shift-scheduling; revisions to the current TSA training and recertification system; and whistleblower protections.

The largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including more than 2,000 in TSA.