FAA Readies Hiring Plan To Fill Controllers' Ranks

Because retirements are individual decisions, Martin said, a supervisor "can't walk up to an employee and ask, 'When are you retiring?' " The FAA, Gibson added, does not want employees to think they face age discrimination or coercion.

Still, Gibson said, most tower supervisors "have a pretty good idea of people who will retire," and that will help shape staffing decisions. FAA officials also think they can assemble reliable projections because controllers face mandatory retirement at 56, she said.

The retirement estimates have become an issue in the contract negotiations between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The talks ended in deadlock, and the dispute has been turned over to Congress for resolution.

The union, meanwhile, has launched a national advertising campaign that claims the FAA's contract proposal would nudge controllers into retirement and pay less to their replacements.

FAA officials dispute those contentions, although the agency proposal would reduce pay scales for the next generation of controllers by 30 percent.

Current controllers earn an average of about $113,000 in base pay and will not take a cut under the FAA proposal, Gibson said. In retirement, controllers would get pensions of about $50,000 if they qualify under the old Civil Service Retirement System and probably less if they were hired under the Federal Employees Retirement System adopted in the late 1980s, she said.

At noon Wednesday, Robert M. Tobias, director of public sector executive education at American University, will be the guest on Federal Diary Live on washingtonpost.com and take questions from federal employees. Stephen Barr may be reached at barrs@washpost.com.