One in 10 TSA airport workers calling in sick

The slowly growing wave of sickouts among TSA workers reached 10 percent as 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 financial limitations.”

The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the rate of unscheduled absences Sunday compared with a 3.1 percent rate on the same day one year ago.

The nation’s 800,000 federal employees 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,” the TSA said in a statement.

Without paychecks, some federal employees have resorted to picking up temporary jobs to make ends meet.

The TSA said it is “optimizing resources” to ensure screening lanes are properly staffed but warned that airports may exercise contingency plans because of call-outs and traveler volume.

TSA employees screened 1.78 million passengers Sunday. Of those, “99.9 percent” waited less than 30 minutes, the agency said, and 93.1 percent waited less than 15 minutes. Saturday, the sickout rate was 8 percent.

The TSA said it tapped members of its National Deployment Force. The added staff helps bulk up security at a handful of larger airports.