The work they do, particularly in aircraft maintenance, has a direct mission impact and contributes directly to the readiness of the United States Air Force. These are skilled and dedicated employees, professionals in their crafts, and we have invested substantially in them to assure we have a capable in-house workforce to support America s Air Force. Sustaining our blue collar workforce is part of our overall force management strategy to ensure we maintain a mission-ready civilian force. Accession planning, force development, and separation management constitute the three main elements of our civilian workforce management strategy. Appropriate compensation programs are critical to each part of this strategy.
Competitive pay is necessary to attract new employees and retain skilled and experienced employees.
For example, the Tinker AFB Delegated Examining Unit receives on the average about 250 applications for each FWS job announcement it opens. When they have recruitment difficulties, they are associated with the availability of journeyman-level workers, not the pay offered. Even this relatively low rate is due to employees reaching retirement age, not to employees leaving for higher pay. This high vacancy rate, combined with a large number of aircraft maintenance workers regularly leaving for higher pay, makes it hard for Robins to make positive progress in filling their most critical vacancies. Robins AFB is working to gather similar data that can be used to justify special rates for aircraft related occupations, for submission through HQ USAF and DoD to the Office of Personnel Management for approval.