Thousands of overworked air traffic controllers are now doing their work without pay check

Air traffic controllers are overworked and traumatized. Now, with a government closure, it is about to get worse for people responsible for ensuring that plane trips are safe and effective.

The government closed on Wednesday and continues on Thursday, with the Senate outside the session for Yom Kippour.

Thousands of people at the FAA are on leave, but none will be air controllers. Field training and hiring for more controllers will not also be interrupted, according to the last emergency plan to close the Ministry of Transport. But air traffic controllers will always face difficulties.

The staff deemed essential is required to return to work during a closure with the exception of “protection of life and goods”, even if they are without salary. More than 13,000 air controllers employed by the dowry enter this category.

Controllers are currently working on compulsory overtime, traveling 10 hours a day, six days a week, according to the Labor National Air Traffic Controlrs Association (NATCA).

“The increase in stress and fatigue that comes from the work of long hours without salary cannot be overestimated,” Natca president Nick Daniels said in a press release on Wednesday.

Air traffic controllers are also required to work without the help of support staff. More than 2,350 Aviation Security professionals represented by Natca were on leave due to the closure.

“Government closings reduce the security and efficiency of the national airspace system (NAS) and erod the safety layers that allow the flying public to arrive safely and on time for their destinations,” Natca said in the press release. “During a closure, critical security support staff are on leave and support programs are suspended, which makes it difficult for air traffic controllers and other air security professionals to operate at optimal levels.”

A law on the stability of aviation financing was introduced last month by the Democratic representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and André Carson of Indiana who would keep essential employees of the FAA, including air controllers, paid 30 days in the event of the government closure. He has not yet been elected.

Once the closure is finally completed, the workers will be paid for their time and they have not yet lacked a pay check. Air traffic controllers are paid by Bihebdomadaires, a senior colleague from the center for transport, in Gizmodo, and the next pay day will be the following week on Friday 10 October. If the stop ends by then, the problem is resolved. But the problem is that there is currently no clear end in sight for the stop.

The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, told journalists on Thursday that a weekend vote is “unlikely”, which means that the closure could last very well next week if there is no agreement tomorrow. Democrats ask that health provisions, such as the extension of subsidies to the Act respecting affordable care, be included in a credit bill. If the Republicans remain firm against this, the closure will continue.

The last closure of the government took place during the first Trump administration, and it lasted 35 days. What ended up forcing Trump to grove his requests for financing bills was when ten air traffic controllers called patients in Virginia and Florida, who completely anchored all flights to New York Airport in New York and caused disruption in other major airports across the country.

Staff shortages and work trauma

The judgment and its implications arise as the United States faces a shortage of persistent air traffic controller who has led to many flight delays.

Daniels told CNBC earlier this year that the endowment of the air traffic controller was “below all time” and that “all hiccups, a government closure or everything that disrupts the air traffic controllers that will absolutely harm the ability of the flying public, and the number of planes that we can put in the air at any time.”

A shortage has been the case for years, but it has been brought further under the spotlight due to a series of terrifying accidents.

An American Airlines flight collided with a Black Hawk Army Black helicopter in Washington, DC, earlier this year, killing 67 people. A few months after that, Newark Airport experienced a terrifying breakdown that saw air controllers lose all communications with flying planes and outside the airport for about 90 seconds.

Incidents do not come from no air controllers. But they led to a meticulous examination of the plane travel industry and put both air security workers and travelers.