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Washington, D.C.—The continued advocacy of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in favor of the right of frontline Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees to voluntarily wear protective masks while performing their duties has resulted in a key federal advisory board establishing a working group to study how to best protect federal employees against another outbreak of the swine flu.

The working group was established today in response to a resolution proposed by NTEU at a meeting of the Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH), an advisory body created to monitor health and safety issues affecting federal workers.

“Information to employees about what they are allowed to do to protect against possible infection has been contradictory and vague,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “FACOSH should recommend that federal employees be allowed to voluntarily use protective masks to protect their health in situations such as the recent swine flu outbreak.”

NTEU’s resolution calls for FACOSH to recommend that—under the instruction of the Secretary of Labor—the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) become the lead agency in determining appropriate federal workplace rules in health scare situations.

The resolution notes that federal employees at DHS have been subject to an unwritten prohibition on the voluntary use of face masks during the swine flu outbreak and that it is unclear as to what federal agency is the lead policymaker for federal employee use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

President Kelley has been leading the effort for the right of frontline DHS workers to use masks since the swine flu outbreak began more than two months ago. Language has been recently approved by the House that would extend this right throughout DHS.

“I am very pleased to see the House ensure that DHS employees who interact with the public would be free from negative personnel actions for using certain protective equipment, such as surgical masks, N95 respirators, gloves and hand sanitizers,” said President Kelley. In recent House and Senate testimony, the union has presented to members of Congress employee affidavits testifying to demands from supervisors that they not wear protective masks, and making those wearing such equipment remove it.

NTEU has repeatedly pressed the urgency of DHS providing its employees with a clear and rational policy on the wearing of personal protective equipment before a widely-predicted return this fall of the potentially-deadly swine flu. The World Health Organization has declared the current H1N1 outbreak of swine flu to be a global pandemic.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees can interact with thousands of travelers in a single shift,” President Kelley said. “General guidance recommending that they avoid crowds and maintain a distance of six feet from those exhibiting illness are neither realistic nor workable.”

FACOSH was established by executive order in 1971 to advise the Secretary of Labor on matters related to the number and severity of federal workplace injuries and illness outbreaks.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 24,000-employee CBP workforce and thousands of TSA employees at airports nationwide.