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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit seeking a range of documents from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as an integral part of a comprehensive union effort to determine whether proficiency tests administered to the screener workforce are fair, valid and free from discrimination.

These tests play a key role in the annual certification process for front-line security screeners to retain their jobs.

They also have been an integral part of TSA’s Performance and Accountability Standards System (PASS), which is used to determine employees’ merit pay and promotion opportunities. In response to serious concerns raised about PASS by NTEU and employees, TSA said it has made some changes in the system, including temporary suspension of standard operating procedure tests and image testing while they are revised. NTEU said the changes do not go far enough.

“Congress created the certification requirement to make sure that the screener workforce possesses, on an on-going basis, the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities for successful performance of their critical security functions,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “This important purpose can only be satisfied if the certification process is accurate, fair and free from discrimination.”

NTEU represents TSA employees at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports in New York, and Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was

made necessary by TSA’s failure to respond to an NTEU FOIA request for the documents.

Through that request, NTEU sought information addressing various aspects of the certification process, including management directives concerning proficiency reviews dating back to 2002; job, occupational and work analyses and validation studies; information about the impact of the certification testing requirement on employees by race, gender, national origin, age group, disability status and job title; and information relating to TSA’s use of contractors in developing or administering such tests.

NTEU requested the information, President Kelley said, “to ensure that employee selection procedures, such as the annual certification tests, are valid indicators of employee success on the job and are fair and free from discrimination.”

The NTEU leader noted the dangerously-high TSA attrition rate, and said the union looks forward to working with TSA to ensure that its certification procedures “advance the mutually-compatible goals” of allowing the agency to satisfy its statutory mandate while protecting the rights of its employees.