Airline Employees Not Liable for Disclosing Threats, but Screeners Can Lose Their Jobs for It
Airline employees are shielded from liability for reporting potential threats to TSA employees, but screeners can be fired for doing the same.
(PRWEB) August 23, 2004 -- How can this be? Is it possible that airline
employees at airports can be completely shielded from any liability from
reporting suspected security threats while screeners can actually get fired for
it? Yes. Incredible but true.
Section 125 of the Aviation and
Transportation Security Act of 2001 (ATSA) amended federal law (49 USC Chapter
449, Subchapter II) by granting "...any employee of an air carrier...who makes a
voluntary disclosure of any suspicious transaction...to any employee or agent of
the Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice, any Federal, State,
or local law enforcement officer, or any airport or airline security officer
shall not be civilly liable to any person under any law or regulation of the
United States, any constitution, law, or regulation of any State or political
subdivision of any State, for such disclosure."
But section 111 (d) of
the ATSA states:
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Under
Secretary of Transportation for Security may employ, appoint, discipline,
terminate, and fix the compensation, terms, and conditions of employment of
Federal service for such a number of individuals as the Under Secretary
determines to be necessary..."
The recent decision by the Merit Systems
Protection Board states that Board does not have jurisdiction over whistleblower
complaints filed by screeners with the Transportation Security Administration.
The legal rationale was that the ATSA gives the TSA supreme authority -- without
regard to any other federal law -- to terminate employees. What's more, any
employees so terminated have no recourse available to them under the law.
So if a screener reports a security violation, threat or anything that
management doesn't "appreciate," a screener can be terminated, with apparently
no hope of appealing the decision.
To read the full editorial column, go
to http://tsa-screeners.com/start/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2334
For
additional information visit the Screeners Central web site at http://www.tsa-screeners.com
About Screeners
Central
Screeners Central (tsa-screeners.com) is the humorous (and at times
irreverent) resource site for America's TSA Screeners. Screeners Central is not
affiliated with the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of
Homeland Security, or any government agency.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/8/prweb151625.htm