FAA tech workers win pay raise

Information technology workers at the Federal Aviation Administration will finally get a governmentwide pay raise after almost two years of fighting with agency officials.

In its Sept. 6 decision, the Federal Labor Relations Authority ordered the agency to comply with an arbitrator's order granting FAA employees the raise, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001-with interest. FLRA's ruling settled a long-running dispute between FAA and the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS) union, which represents a group of employees at the agency who did not get the raise when it was implemented in January 2001.

The Office of Personnel Management announced the IT pay raise two years ago as a way to help agencies fill entry-level positions at lower grades. It applies only to certain positions at grades GS-5 through GS-12 in certain occupational series, including computer specialists (GS-334), computer engineers (GS-854) and computer scientists (GS-1550).

The FAA refused to give its computer specialists the raise and agency officials said unions had to negotiate for the pay raise because the agency's pay system is separate from the General Schedule system. PASS disputed that interpretation and filed a grievance against the agency in January 2001. Eight months later, an arbitrator ruled that the FAA had to fork over the money, but the agency appealed that decision last October.

In its Sept. 6 ruling, FLRA said that FAA's argument was flawed.

"Nothing in the language [of the law] prohibits the agency from granting the appropriate employees the special rate," FLRA said in its decision. "Instead, it merely authorizes the agency to set the compensation levels of its employees."

FAA officials were still reviewing the decision and unable to respond on Thursday, according to a spokeswoman, but a Sept. 10 memorandum to PASS' leaders from the union's counsel, Michael Derby, said the agency could appeal the FLRA decision in federal court.