As the government shutdown continues on, sickouts among TSA workers reached 10 percent. The agency that provides security at the nation’s airports acknowledged “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.”
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Monday that the rate of unscheduled absences Sunday compared with a 3.1 percent rate on the same day one year ago. 800,000 federal employees across the nation will miss their second paycheck this week as the government shutdown extends into its second month. About half of those employees, including about 50,000 airport security workers, are considered “essential” and are working anyway.
“While national average wait times are within normal TSA times of 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA Precheck, some airports experienced longer than usual wait times,” TSA said in a statement.
