Controller claims retaliation by FAA

Man says his dismissal is for lawsuit he filed

By Ken Kaye
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 24 2006


For his birthday, Ray McLeod, an air traffic controller in Miami who uses a wheelchair, got an unwanted present: a pink slip.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday notified McLeod that as of Monday, when he turns 50, he will no longer have the job he has held for 21 years.

McLeod is eligible for his pension on his birthday, the FAA said. Under terms of a 2002 court settlement, that is the agreed-upon date he would depart, the agency said. McLeod, of Cooper City, had sued the agency for failing to make his workplace wheelchair-accessible.

Although he planned to retire this year anyway, he said it's still unfair. He accused the FAA of "retaliating" for his suit.

"To be forced out the door without time to prepare, to me, that's just not right," he said Friday.

"I still have financial responsibilities and bills."

FAA officials denied retaliating or discriminating. Rather, they said, they were abiding by the terms of the settlement.

"The agency takes great pride to create a positive environment for employees who have disability concerns," said FAA spokesman Geoff Basye.

In 1975, McLeod was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident when he was 18. After an arduous rehabilitation, he was an airline dispatcher for 10 years, giving him the experience to be hired as a controller at Miami Center, an FAA radar complex.

"I could have stayed home and collected a disability check. But I wanted to do more. So I pushed myself to achieve and take care of my family," said McLeod, the married father of two sons.

Yet from the start, work was a struggle because of a lack of accessibility to elevators and restrooms, he said.

Then, six years ago, the center installed new radar displays with consoles so low McLeod was unable to squeeze his wheelchair under them. He would have had to turn his wheelchair sideways to work at a radar screen, which he felt would have been unsafe.

"That pretty much was the icing on the cake," he said.

He first filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, then a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Miami.

The FAA opted to settle, allowing McLeod to work as an assistant controller, a less demanding position that paid him a base annual salary of $144,000. The settlement included a clause that McLeod would be allowed to work in that position until the first day he was eligible for retirement.

McLeod said his interpretation of the clause was he could continue working, but not necessarily as a controller.

"There have been other controllers who are no longer capable of working air traffic for medical reasons who have been assigned other jobs," he said.

He said he is unsure what he will do as of Monday.

"After being a good employee for 20-plus years, it's just no way for anybody to be treated," he said.

Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7911.

The FAA opted to settle, allowing McLeod to work as an assistant controller, a less demanding position that paid him a base annual salary of $144,000. The settlement included a clause that McLeod would be allowed to work in that position until the first day he was eligible for retirement.

Originally posted by ParaDude:
:rolleyes:

And this shit makes the papers? Man...we work so hard to let the world know that we aren't "whiney" and "needy" crips and then this crap hits the media and it's like we have to do it all over again. :rolleyes:

I agree with Corlorde's post...wholeheartedly.

i have worked 19 yrs, in pain, and i'll be damned if i let "updated" equipment allow them to hand me a pink slip. really, read between the lines.