Development of the Classification Standard for Flight Service Station Specialists

A request was made for a review of the establishment of the classification standard for the flight service station specialist occupation to determine if normal procedures were followed.

The Department of Transportation asked the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to develop a new classification standard for the air traffic control occupational series as a result of agency and union dissatisfaction with the classification standard. CSC agreed that a classification standard review was appropriate, and its Standards Division conducted the review. Union officials were dissatisfied with the decision that certain controllers would receive a performance level one-grade-higher while the maximum grade level for specialists would remain the same. Developing classification standards is imprecise and subject to judgment. Even though CSC may have gone beyond what its normal procedures require, it was not unprecedented nor outside the scope of their authority. According to CSC, the decision not to use the normal evaluating procedure was motivated by the controversial nature of the classification study and the need to issue the standard as quickly as possible.