National Association of Air Traffic Specialists

Aviation Safety is Our Business

Bulletin #14

From

Don McLennan

NAATS has met, again, with management in early January to continue discussions on a new compensation system to cover the FSS option. Their proposal to NAATS has the following provisions:

The new AT/NAATS pay plan will continue to use:

• A job numbering nomenclature based on our existing job series, 2152.
• Qualifications Standards. The Qualifications Standards Handbook, X-118, published by the Office of Personnel Management.
• ATS PRIB 21. It is being retained as a supplement to the Qualifications Standard and will be updated as needed. NAATS will be invited to participate in periodic updates to ATS PRIB 21.
• Pay Cap. The policy for setting the maximum base pay level for an employee is unchanged. The maximum pay level (adjusted base pay) can be no higher than the FAA Administrator.

Components They Wish to Add:

• Job Categories. Job series are grouped together into categories that reflect similarities in the nature and type of work to be completed.
• Career Level Definitions. Career level definitions describe work typical of each career level.Career level definitions replace current position descriptions and the grade level criteria of the OPM classification standard for the 2152 series.
• Pay Bands. The FY-00 core pay bands are included at the end of this section. The core pay bands will be reviewed each year and updated as appropriate.
• Incorporation of Air Traffic Revitalization Act (ATRA) operational differential compensation into base pay. Upon conversion to the new system, the ATRA differential will be incorporated into the base pay of employees who are currently eligible to receive it. Increasing the base pay by 4.1 percent, rather than 5 percent, offsets the resulting increase in other areas such as retirement and life insurance. Upon implementation of the AT/NAATS Pay Plan, operational differential will no longer be applicable.

Components They Wish to Eliminate:

• Classification Standards and Guides. Reference to the grading criteria of OPM Classification Standards and Guides has been eliminated.
• Position Descriptions. Position descriptions will be replaced with Job Category Definitions and Career Level Definitions.
• The existing FG Pay Schedule. The new pay bands will replace the FG Pay Schedule.
• Pay Grades. The 15 FG pay grades associated with the FG Pay Schedule will be replaced by newly designed pay bands.
• Steps. The ten steps associated with the current FG Pay Schedule and pay grades will be eliminated.

This is a disappointing, and an operationally weak, initial proposal from the management team. It rolls in your 4.1 operational differential and, near as I can tell that is it. It is certainly not a very responsive proposal to the needs of the organization nor one NAATS will be very excited about going to in the near future. I see almost nothing in it for the ATS organization. They will get none of the things they have been seeking for years. My conclusion is that management’s chief negotiators are not taking the ATS organization’s needs into account. Only the desires of LMR are being put on the table. LMR always hopes to not grant anything new to a Union, even if it means a stronger operational entity, because of their fear that other Unions will want the same thing and how could they tell them NO! More news in the near future, this is the concrete stuff I trust you were asking for?

Back to Bulletin List.

Walter W. Pike, President

This page was last updated on 26 June, 2000