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Washington, D.C.—After months of seeking a definitive policy that would help protect our country’s frontline homeland security employees during a health crisis such as the swine flu outbreak, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has won agreement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that agency workers can don respirator masks at their discretion.

“While long overdue, this is a major victory for frontline employees and their families,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, who, during the widespread and dangerous swine flu outbreak earlier this year, continued pressing CBP and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to permit employee discretion in the use of such masks.

She added: “I am very pleased that the Department of Homeland Security and CBP leadership worked with NTEU to produce an agreement that will serve employees and the agency well.”

The NTEU-CBP agreement comes as President Kelley testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee on the status and outlook for the nation’s response to a pandemic. This is a timely and important hearing, since medical experts widely predict a return of the swine flu virus later this year. Already, more than two million cases are known to have occurred in the U.S.

The NTEU-CBP Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on this vital issue provides for employee discretion in the use of masks without the need to obtain supervisory approval, when they believe it is needed to safely carry out their duties during a public health concern.

While NTEU was pressing for that right during the spring outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that employees stay six feet away from individuals suspected of being ill with swine flu.

As President Kelley repeatedly pointed out over the past three months, however, that advice is impractical for many federal workers—especially for those in security positions who cannot maintain such a distance in performing their required duties. And CBP employees faced confusion when some local managers prevented employees from wearing protective masks or forced those employees wearing such protection to remove it.

“Even though swine flu has fallen out of the headlines, it has remained a great concern for CBP employees. This agreement gives them tools to protect themselves in the coming flu season,” said Kelley.

The MOU is the second positive step on this matter. Earlier, at NTEU’s urging, the House approved legislation containing a provision permitting employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to wear protective masks while on duty; that measure, however, affected only TSA employees.

In late May, TSA, which is a unit of DHS, adopted a policy permitting employees the discretionary use of respirator masks, but it failed to disseminate that information widely, and did so only after the H1N1 flu-related death of a TSA employee in Puerto Rico earlier this month.

In her testimony today, President Kelley notes that further broad steps must be taken regarding public health emergencies in the interest of employees, their agencies and the nation, and should address such important matters as leave policies, telework and the continuity of government operations.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 24,000-employee CBP bargaining unit and thousands of TSA screeners at airports across the nation.