FAA is ahead of other agencies in this regard. The centerpiece of FAA personnel reform is the pilot test of pay banding for employees and of total compensation for senior executives. Begun last year, the test is scheduled to run for 18 months. The agency announces job openings on the Internet and is automating applications processing and simplifying its use of temporary employees. FAA also has created a library of standard, two-page job descriptions.
Managers confirm that hiring is faster and easier, even for some highly technical positions.
In terms of both numbers and history, the most important relationship is with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, successor to the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, which was wiped out in the 1981 controllers' strike. It includes an incentive scheme of extra pay for controllers who meet specified agency safety and performance goals and augmented pay for work at the busiest air traffic hubs. In return, the union agreed to productivity gains by allowing controllers to be assigned training, briefing and quality assurance tasks while not controlling traffic. The Federal Managers Association denounced FAA's plan to pay for controllers' raises by eliminating 700 supervisory positions. FMA officials pointed out that an earlier initiative inspired by Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government team to reduce the proportion of supervisors had been abandoned by FAA as detrimental to air traffic control.