Human Resources

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Surface transportation agencies find it difficult to recruit and retain the talent they require to carry out their missions, in part due to higher salaries provided by the private sector. They face a wave of retirements that threatens to deplete much of their institutional memory and are undertaking more demanding missions with fewer people than in the past. In 2005 surface transportation reauthorization legislation, Congress adopted recommendations to increase federal funding available for training existing workers to improve their skills and provided funds to allow colleges and universities to partner with transportation agencies to develop courses and curricula. The agencies themselves should elevate human resource development to a strategic function because top level management attention to human capital is key to successful performance.

The university, college, and community college programs that prepare the future transportation workforce should be developing people with a diverse set of skills beyond the traditional emphasis on civil engineering to include environmental management, management, planning, economics, law, and other topics.

Estimates of the appropriate number of air traffic controllers have long been controversial. Models developed by the Federal Aviation Administration are appropriate for national-level estimates but not for staffing levels at individual facilities. A recommended process would blend model results with local circumstances and norms that exist across facilities.

Replacement of the Federal Employer’s Liability Act (FELA) coverage of railroad workers with state workers’ compensation programs would be resisted strongly by labor because workers’ compensation programs do not compensate for “pain and suffering.” Workers’ compensation programs, however, involve less litigation and lower administrative costs. Moreover, the differences in overall compensation levels between the two types of programs are not as great as in the past. Industry and labor should rely on alternative dispute-resolutions mechanisms to reduce the extent of litigation under FELA.

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