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Washington, D.C. — The end of an unfair pay and performance evaluation system is a priority issue for employees at the Transportation Security Administration, the leader of the nation’s largest independent federal employees union told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security Thursday.

In testimony for a hearing on authorizing TSA for fiscal 2012 and 2013, National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley was critical of the Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS).

“The starting pay under PASS is among the lowest in the government. In addition, the performance system provides many opportunities for favoritism to replace objectivity,” Kelley said. “The authorization bill should end the PASS system and include placement of the officers in the General Schedule pay system and the merit system that is used by most of the federal government.”

She added: “TSA Officers protect our skies and the traveling public. They look for bombs and other prohibited items at checkpoints in airports, they inspect rail cars, and they patrol subways with other law enforcement agencies. They work to make all modes of transportation safe. They should be paid on par with other federal professionals doing similar work.”

While TSA Administrator John S. Pistole granted collective bargaining rights to agency employees in February after a thorough review, Kelley asked Congress to make those rights permanent to ensure that TSA employees will continue to have a meaningful voice in the workplace.

Kelley also asked the subcommittee to suspend TSA’s Practical Skills Evaluations (PSEs), the agency’s flawed recertification for TSA Officers, and direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the use of PSEs.

“Despite many conversations with TSA management, the annual recertification for TSA Officers continues to be mired in controversy,” Kelley said. “Our members attribute this to insufficient training of those administering tests and those taking them, unfair testing methods, an inability to verify or question results, and a lack of meaningful remediation.”

Additionally, Kelley told the subcommittee they must address retention pay, adequate staffing levels, reasonable uniform allowances, and define air passenger security as inherently governmental and to be conducted only by federal employees.

“With these improvements, TSA can address the long-standing morale and attrition problems that have plagued the agency since it was created in the wake of September 11,” Kelley said. “By listening to its employees and investing in its workforce, TSA can become the world-class air passenger security agency that Congress has always envisioned.”

NTEU has an ongoing organizing campaign among TSA employees and already represents many thousands of them at airports across the country. A union representation election is currently underway and will conclude on June 21. TSA is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, where NTEU already is the exclusive representative for the 26,000-member U.S. Customs and Border Protection bargaining unit.