📢 Important Update on TSA Budget, Staffing, and Overtime: What It Means for You

Dear Union Sisters and Brothers, Bargaining Unit Employees,

We want to provide you with a detailed update regarding recent developments that will significantly affect frontline operations, particularly in how TSA allocates staffing and overtime hours for the remainder of this fiscal year.

🧾 TSA is Operating Under FY24 Budget Levels

TSA Management has confirmed that they are currently operating under the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget allocation, which imposes strict funding limitations on Full-Time Employee’s (FTEs), staffing models, and overtime usage. As a result, our airport’s total FTE count has been reduced, directly impacting both full-time and part-time employee scheduling and the availability of overtime.

⚠️ How This Impacts You

Because of these budget constraints:

• Expect reduced overtime availability, especially in non-critical or non-peak operations.
• TSA may potentially scale back the Divestiture Officer (DO) due to the staffing model. Where previously there may have been one DO per lane, you may now see only one DO per mod-set in the near future. 
• Part-time employees (PTs) face additional challenges. If a part-time employee who regularly works 4–5 hours/day, 5 days a week signs up for overtime during the workweek, this could potentially convert that employee to an FTE status in TSA’s budget calculations. This raises the FTE cost of the airport, which TSA management must keep within allocated limits.

Management must carefully manage the number of FTEs utilized in order to avoid exceeding budget thresholds—a situation which, if violated, could impact the entire airport’s staffing model and funding.

✅ Permissible Options for Part-Time Employees to Pick Up Additional Hours

Despite the limitations, there are compliant pathways under the TSA Premium Pay Handbook (MD 1100.55-8) for part-time employees to legally and properly increase their weekly hours without exceeding FTE limits or violating budget caps. These are:

1. Shift Trades

• You may trade shifts with another employee.
• The traded shift does not count as overtime, and it does not increase the airport’s FTE count.
• Shift trades remain one of the most flexible options for PTs to pick up hours.

2. Working Overtime After Completing 8 Hours in a Single Day

• According to Section C.3.(a) of the Premium Pay Handbook, part-time non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime only if they:
  • Work more than 8 hours in a single day, and
  • The overtime is officially ordered and approved using TSA Form 1107 .
• If a PT employee is authorized to work 8 hours on a particular day, any time beyond that can count as overtime.

Example:

You are a PT employee scheduled for 5 hours on Wednesday. If you are offered and complete a full 8-hour shift that day, you may request to work additional overtime beyond those 8 hours that same day—subject to management’s approval.

3. Working Overtime After Reaching 40 Hours in the Workweek

• Under Section C.3.(a)(2), overtime is triggered once a part-time employee exceeds 40 hours in the administrative workweek (Sunday through Saturday).
• If, through scheduled shifts, shift trades, or a combination thereof, you reach 40 hours in a given workweek, you may sign up for and be paid overtimebeyond those 40 hours. This will not impact the FTE.

Example:

If you work 40 hours through regular shifts and a shift trade, and then pick up a 5-hour extra shift later in the same workweek, those final 5 hours will be compensated as overtime (assuming pre-approval is secured).

🧠 Additional Reminders

• Overtime must always be pre-approved using TSA Form 1107 (or 1107-1 for group approvals).
• Overtime is not guaranteed and may be denied based on budget constraints.
• Management is required to maintain the airport’s overall staffing modelwithin specific budget caps—thus, decisions may not always be based on operational needs alone, but also fiscal compliance.
• The Administrative Workweek is defined as Sunday to Saturday, per Section A.1 of the Premium Pay Handbook .

🧭 Final Thoughts

We know that budget and staffing decisions can seem confusing—they are. Even your union representatives had to spend considerable time in meetings with management to fully understand the nuances of the FY24 constraints and their impact on part-time scheduling and overtime.

We remain committed to ensuring your rights are protected under the law and under our Collective Bargaining Agreement. If you have questions about your eligibility to pick up hours, shift trade, or sign up for overtime, please reach out to your local union representative.