"Airport background checks delay hires"

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Background checks delay hires 
BY JOHN GILLIE
The Tacoma (WA) News Tribune 


Problems with a new federal background check for potential airport employees
could slow baggage delivery, delay cargo shipments and cut the hours of
airport vendors at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and other airports
throughout the country as the holiday travel season approaches. 

At Sea-Tac alone, more than 400 new hires are awaiting clearance from the
federal Transportation Security Administration before they can be issued
badges that allow them to work beyond the airport's security checkpoints.

Some of those newly hired workers have been waiting since Oct. 1 to see
whether they passed the federal government's security muster to work in
secure areas of the airport.

That's the date that the TSA imposed a requirement that new hires pass not
only a regular criminal background check but a new terrorism database search
before they receive a security clearance.

"We're all in favor of new employees undergoing a more thorough background
check," said Wendy Reiter, Sea-Tac's chief of security, "but we think the
TSA should delay the implementation of the new procedure until they get the
system working correctly.

Without the 400 workers awaiting the security clearance, said Reiter,
airport vendors and contractors are running short of employees to get jobs
done at the airport, particularly at restaurants, cargo-loading operations
and baggage-handling businesses. 

Many of the airport food vendors and shops have been subsisting by requiring
existing employees to work overtime. But some of those shops have warned
they may have to curtail their hours or close some of their shops
temporarily unless they can get help soon, she said. Some of the workers
couldn't wait and already have taken other jobs. At Menzies Aviation, which
handles luggage for the airport's dominant airline, Alaska, the inability to
get new ramp workers bagged is creating a staffing problem.

"It's having quite an effect," said Melissa Steen, human resources manager
for Menzies Aviation.

Sea-Tac is not alone in suffering from a worker shortage. Some 720 workers
are waiting to clear security checks at Miami International Airport. In Las
Vegas, about 500 workers who have been hired to work at McCarren
International Airport still await security clearance. Airport organizations
have asked the TSA for relief from the new security requirements.

"The new process is not working," Airports Council International President
Greg Principato said in a letter to the TSA.

Sea-Tac's Reiter said the federal agency had been testing the new program
for about six months, but that pilot program focused on rehearsing the
process of transferring data, not checking names against the database.

The TSA said the process just needs time until the bugs are worked out. The
agency made some progress over the weekend and cleared about 100 workers at
Sea-Tac, but roughly 400 still wait for clearance.

"When you start something new, it's going to take a little time to work it
out," said Ellen Howe, TSA spokeswoman. "But we aren't going to back down on
vetting people."

Existing airport workers also must pass the terrorist check, but they will
be allowed to keep their badges while the check is ongoing, said Reiter.
Among the 16,000 Sea-Tac workers submitted for the additional check, none
has been rejected, Reiter said.

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