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Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are working without pay during the shutdown—and, as the funding lapse enters its second week, the stress of upcoming missed paychecks is leading to an uptick in sick calls, according to the union that represents them.
Fifty of 250 TSA officers—roughly one in five—who were scheduled to work in a region including seven mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia called in sick Monday, Joe Shuker, regional vice president of AFGE Council 100, the union representing TSA workers, told Forbes, adding that “similar numbers” called out sick Tuesday in the same region.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport saw roughly 400 callouts by TSA officers this weekend, Shuker told Forbes.
TSA is no longer updating wait time information on its website or app.
TSA officers are scheduled for a partial paycheck on Friday, Oct. 10. If the shutdown continues, the first zero paycheck is scheduled for Oct. 24. The average TSA screener makes $48,520 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Shuker told Forbes many of the union’s members live paycheck to paycheck. “If you have kids, a mortgage, a car payment, food bills—you can’t miss a check,” he said. “Our members are worried about how to pay for childcare, wondering if they could be saving money by staying home with their kids.” Already during this shutdown, Shuker arranged for a local food bank to bring in meals for TSA workers at Philadelphia International Airport. “And it was a godsend, really,” he said. Forbes reached out to TSA for comment.
Like air traffic controllers, TSA officers are classified as essential employees—meaning they must keep working without pay during the shutdown—and will get their back-pay restored after the funding lapse ends. Historically, the strain of working during shutdowns without a timely paycheck led to reports of low morale and increased absenteeism among TSA workers. During the 2018 government shutdown, which lasted 35 days, hundreds of TSA screeners called in sick, leading to flight delays and longer screening lines.
A notice on the MyTSA app, which travelers use to monitor TSA wait times at airports, says it is “not being actively managed” due to the lapse in funding. There is a similar notice on the TSA website. Shuker told Forbes he would expect a higher number of TSA employees to call out sick on busier travel days such as Sunday, Thursday and Monday. “If you were planning like stress day or a mental health day or an ‘F you’ day, you wouldn’t pick Tuesday because it's the lightest day of the week and the easiest to work,” Shuker told Forbes.
$1 billion. That’s how much the government shutdown is costing the nation’s tourism industry per week, in addition to placing an “unnecessary strain on an already overextended federal travel workforce,” Geoff Freeman, CEO and president of the U.S. Travel Association, said in a statement.
What Air Travelers Can Expect If The Shutdown Drags On (Forbes)