For the third consecutive year, about 800 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration are getting a pay raise as a lump-sum payment rather than as an increase in their base pay because they have bumped up against the top of their "pay band."
FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey told FAA employees last week that she would not expand the pay bands -- which are broad salary ranges for occupations or categories of jobs -- because the agency's latest survey shows that agency employees are paid about 14 percent above the market average for similar private-sector jobs.
 
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A group of FAA employees contends that the decision to hold the line on the pay bands is unfair and reduces the value of their pensions and other salary-based benefits. Adjustments to the base pay count toward retirement credits, but lump-sum payments do not.
Of about 38,000 employees under the agency's "core compensation" system, about 20,600 -- because of union contracts and other reasons -- get raises to their base pay that put them over the top of their pay band, the group calculates.
Tim O'Hara, an FAA employee, said he believes that the FAA compensation program is "not a pay system but more like a caste system." O'Hara is a board member of Local 3300 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of several FAA unions.
In an e-mail to employees, Blakey said she understands "that for many employees, the issue is not how much they are paid, but rather the different rules that apply to other employees."
She added, "I share this concern because I believe our compensation policies should be as consistent as possible."
She said that the FAA will work to move all employees under a policy reflecting market-based compensation and that union contracts, negotiated before she arrived, will be renegotiated to make for a more consistent pay policy.
Union contracts require semiannual adjustments to pay bands for air traffic controllers, and all pay adjustments go to base salaries of airway specialists.
Blakey said she has approved a 3.15 percent increase for employees covered by the FAA core compensation system. In addition, she said, some employees will receive a pay raise based on their "superior contribution," which will vary in size. Employees also will receive an average 1 percent increase in "locality pay," she said. FAA executives will receive a 2.5 percent raise, she said.
In her e-mail, Blakey noted that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security plan to launch pay-for-performance systems and promised that the FAA "will be comparing our policies with those proposed by these other agencies." She said the FAA will hire an outside consultant in the next few months to assess its pay system.
Defense and Homeland Security probably will use pay bands in their new systems, officials said. Those two departments cannot bargain over pay.
Patent Board Farewells
Neal Abrams, Larry Staab and Sherman Winters retired Dec. 30 as administrative patent judges at the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. Andrew Harold Metz, an administrative patent judge and a former president of the Senior Executives Association Department of Commerce chapter, retired Jan. 3. Together, they have 142 years of government service, of which 73 years was spent at the patent board.
Retirements
Judy Bell, secretary to the associate director for customer services at the Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service, retired Dec. 31. She served in the government for 26 years.
Regina Belt, chief of the State Department's Employees Service Center, retired Dec. 30 after 42 years of federal service.
Peggy A. Harrod, a paralegal specialist at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, retired Dec. 31 after 39 years of federal service.
Edward J. Kinney, director of information technology security for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, retired Dec. 31 after 32 years of federal service.
Carlos Poza, deputy director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, retired Dec. 31 after 29 years of government service. His Commerce Department career included tours as the senior commercial officer in Guatemala, Portugal, Panama, Mexico and Chile, and as regional director for Europe.
Sandra M. Rigby, associate director for customer services at the Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service, retired Dec. 31 after 34 years of government service.
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
