Federal Airport Screeners Have Top Injury Rate In US -Report
Federal Airport Screeners Have Top Injury Rate In US -Report
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Federal airport screeners continue to have the highest injury rate among U.S. workers, and the related absenteeism may be threatening security, USA Today reported Wednesday.
Because of staffing shortages, screeners have missed training and violated a law requiring checked luggage to go through bomb-detection machines, according to the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department inspector general, the newspaper reported.
The rate of screeners injured on the job fell in 2005 to 29% from 36% the previous year, according to the latest TSA figures. But the rate remains higher than any of about 600 job categories tracked by the Labor Department, the newspaper said.
The injury rate for screeners far exceeds the 4.5% injury rate for the rest of the federal work force. The private sector rate was 4.8% in 2004, the most recent year for which Labor Department figures are available, USA Today said.
And the TSA said taxpayers paid $52 million in fiscal 2005 to cover wages and medical payments for injured screeners, the newspaper reported.
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