Class Action Complaint

A group of disgruntled Federal Aviation Employees officially filed an administrative complaint against the agency late Wednesday, alleging age discrimination.

Tim O'Hara, an agency employee and leader of the group, is one of the two "class agents" that are named in the complaint, according to the group's lawyer, Sarah Starrett.

Under the FAA's pay for performance system, more than 800 long-term employees are at the top of their pay bands and cannot receive base salary increases. Those employees, however, can receive annual awards for good performance. Members of this group have complained that they are losing thousands of dollars in retirement benefits, locality pay increases and overtime pay. O'Hara estimated he will lose about $600,000.

At the same time, thousands of other FAA employees are not affected by the salary freezing because of union agreements, or they already were above the maximum pay limit when the rule on pay caps went into effect. Employees with frozen base salaries have alleged that the differing compensation rules are unfair.

The issue has taken on extra importance as the Defense and the Homeland Security departments adopt performance pay and pay banding systems. O'Hara has said that personnel officials should study the FAA's situation before designing their own.

O'Hara said that his group is seeking back pay adjustments for this year and the two previous fiscal years, adjustments to employees' retirement accounts, compensation for lost interest as well as reimbursement for money and effort used to start the legal proceedings.

FAA officials have indicated that they understand the complaint, but would rather work toward extending the hard capped pay bands to all employees-instead of unfreezing salaries for the affected workers. Starrett said she attached to the complaint a statement from FAA Administrator Marion Blakey which indicated that the agency will not unfreeze the employees' salaries.

O'Hara did not rule out the possibility of dialogue with the agency, but he said is not overly hopeful.

"We are in the administrative court process; we can reconcile at any point," O'Hara said. "But so far, they've shown no inclination to do so."