NTEU Lawyers Ask Court to Rule That a Gender-Based Scheduling Policy Is Illegal

Since 2018, CBP management at the Port of Tampa has reserved certain assignments on the night shift for female CBP Officers only, causing the men who wanted those assignments to lose out on night differential pay and forcing women who don’t want those assignments to work nights. This week, NTEU lawyers representing five CBP Officers who have been harmed by that policy filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to rule that the female-only assignments constitute illegal sex discrimination and to order that CBP stop implementing them.

CBP filed its own motion, claiming that the female-only assignments are necessary to ensure that enough female CBP Officers are available at night to perform patdown searches on female passengers arriving at Tampa International Airport. The motion that NTEU lawyers filed on behalf of the five CBP Officers negates that claim with empirical data showing that there never was a problem finding female personnel to patdown female passengers, and that the female-only assignments have caused the CBP Officers harm without yielding any benefit for the Port of Tampa.

The motions are under a court-ordered seal due to sensitive law enforcement information. Redacted versions of them will be available at a later date. A decision on the motions is expected this summer.

Read past issues of NTEU’s Judicial Notice.