Even on a typical day, the air traffic controllers’ work is challenging. It gets even more difficult during a government shutdown. According to the New York Post, controllers in South Carolina and California maintain that financial stress impacts focus and increases the risks to aviation and transportation safety. Speaking to Fox Business, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cautioned that a few call-outs could cause significant delays at the airport and that some employees might even lose their jobs as a result. He acknowledged that some controllers now think about driving Uber to cover their expenses.
Instead of receiving full paychecks, federal employees receive partial or “zero” payments, and overtime accumulates. During the 2019 U.S. government shutdown, controllers filed a lawsuit for overtime pay, which took years to settle. The practice of forcing federal employees to work for free was once described as “unconscionable” by union leaders from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Air Line Pilots Association, according to the Washington Post.
One thing is clear from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Department of Transportation: people under stress can’t guarantee perfect concentration.
What controllers report
“If we have some of our staff that aren’t as dedicated as we need, we’ll let them go,” stated Sean Duffy. However, he pointed out that “even a tiny percentage of absences can cause massive disruption.” That is currently happening on the sky. He also acknowledged the human part: “Now, what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is, ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? Do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I’m already exhausted from doing a job that’s already stressful?”
“The financial anxiety doesn’t just hurt morale; it directly affects safety… When someone responsible for thousands of lives a day is worrying about whether they can pay rent or feed their kids, focus suffers,” a controller from South Carolina told The New York Post. Focus drop when you’re in charge of thousands of lives but preoccupied with issues like rent or food. “Controllers were already underwater before the shutdown. Now we’re drowning.”
“More stress equals more risk,” echoed a controller from California. The fact that the person guiding their plane is underpaid, overworked, and worn out is forgotten by passengers. Many worry that, like in 2019, overtime logged now might never be paid.
Safety with a “S” for salary
Controllers filed a lawsuit for unpaid overtime during the 2019 government shutdown. “Only now, six years later, are some of those checks arriving,” the California controller stated. The fears of today are heightened by that recollection. “Most controllers outside major facilities live paycheck to paycheck. Many take side jobs that distract them at work just to cover rising costs.”
The same controller added: “The system only works because people refuse to fail. But that commitment hurts our mental and physical health.” The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Air Line Pilots Association already deemed unpaid labor to be dangerous during the 2019 crisis. And their caution is still relevant today because financial strain can cause delays at airports and raise issues with aviation safety, not to mention other serious incidents.
A system under pressure
The aviation system is being pushed to a point of break by the U.S. government shutdown. Safety at the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Transportation depends on calm, focused workers, but many of them are now unpaid and exhausted. According to one California controller, “No one should have to live this way.”
Will you feel secure to jump on a plane if you knew the guiders are probably tired and stressed? The same risk is highlighted in every report, from Fox Business to The New York Post: safety margins shrink when stress increase.