A recent amendment proposed ways to relieve some of the paperwork and deadline burdens, at least on the FAA and on former pilot employers. However pilots can still find themselves ensnared in its traps. The ins and outs of the law's administration can create career-affecting problems for which there is no remedy. If you might be potentially interested in pursuing employment as an air carrier pilot, you should be thoroughly familiar with the workings of PRIA so you can avoid its pitfalls.
PRIA took effect on February 7, 1997. It requires air carriers to request records on a potential pilot employee from the pilot's former employers, the FAA, and the states where the pilot has held a drivers license.
The hiring air carrier also must acquire the pilot's work-related employment records from all employers for the previous five years. These employment records include all training records, disciplinary actions (if any), checkride results and comments, and any other matters contained in the pilot's employee file. The FAA must provide information to the requesting air carrier on medical and pilot certificates as well as any records of enforcement actions resulting in the finding of a violation.
If you are thinking about getting a job with an air carrier I'd recommend that you review Advisory Circular 120-68, "Pilot Records Improvement Act of 1996," and be familiar with it. This AC gives the complete pre-amendment legislative text of PRIA and provides some explanation of its requirements. Appendices contain sample request forms for hiring employers to send to the FAA and the state of driver registration, as well as to former employers. The sample forms contain several signature blocks so the pilot can consent to the request for records. Also, the hiring air carrier usually will ask the potential employee to sign a release from liability related to the records request.
As a function of that consent and release, the authors of PRIA were careful to include a clause in the law that provides liability protection for former employers who provide the requested records to the potential employer. The clause states: "[n]o action or proceeding may be brought by or on behalf of an individual who has applied for or is seeking a position with an air carrier as a pilot and who has signed a release from liability,...against...the air carrier requesting the records,...a person who has complied with such request,...a person who has entered information in the individual's records; or...an agent or employee of [the air carrier]... in the nature of an action for defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, interference with contract or otherwise...with respect to the furnishing or use of such records...."
This is a fancy way of saying that a pilot cannot sue a former employer for furnishing the records requested under PRIA. However, a lawsuit can be filed by a pilot against a former employer who provides information pursuant to a records request if that employer knows the information was false and the information "was maintained in violation of a criminal statute of the United States."
Personally, I believe this confusing section of the law provides little, if any, protection for a pilot who leaves an employer on bad terms. In other words, if a pilot leaves an employer for greener pastures, and the former employer is angry because he's lost a pilot, what is there to stop the former employer from telling falsehoods or otherwise providing negative information about the pilot to the new prospective employer in an attempt to prevent the pilot from being hired?
First, PRIA only allows the pilot to sue the former employer if that employer knew the information was false and the falsehoods were "maintained" in violation of a federal criminal statute. What does that mean? Could it mean that the known false information was kept ("maintained") in the pilot's employee file only for future purposes of telling lies about the pilot while under oath in a federal proceeding? I doubt it, because it sounds too contrived.
I'm not sure at this time exactly what that language means. I believe its meaning, though, is overshadowed by something much more important - namely, that lawsuits are expensive. If a good, new job is lost because of false information and bad intent on a former employer's part, the unfortunate pilot probably won't be able to go back to the old job anyway.
How then, can that pilot afford to pay an attorney? This is not meant to seem overly pessimistic, but only to bring some of PRIA's traps to the attention of pilots. The moral of this story is to stay on good terms with former (or soon to be former) employers, and give them plenty of notice before departing for a new job.
Angry employers aside, what about plain old errors in an employment file? Does a pilot have the opportunity to correct those errors? One section of PRIA specifically provides that before making a final decision about hiring, the requesting air carrier shall provide the prospective employee with a reasonable opportunity to submit written comments to correct any inaccurate information contained in his (or her) file.
A pilot can request that copies of his records be sent to him so he can review the file and comment. But what if the former employer refuses to correct the errant information? Once again, is the only remedy a lawsuit? How can that lawsuit be successful if PRIA prohibits suits against an employer unless the employer knows the information is false and the incorrect information was maintained in violation of a federal criminal statute? It appears therefore that a pilot has no remedy in this case, and that hardly seems right. Of course, this sort of thing would be rare, and I hope the prospective employer would understand and be sensitive about correcting inaccurate material.
One recent case I worked on demonstrates this in action. A pilot left a mountain freight operation for an East Coast commuter carrier. Because of a clerical error, his file indicated he had engaged in some anti-management activities while employed. The information was completely inaccurate, and was, quite frankly, a little humorous because the pilot himself was a manager.
The pilot attempted several times to get the information corrected, but to no avail. He provided the freighter with documented evidence showing he was nowhere near the scene of the occurrence. He contacted the union, but they would not help. When the commuter found out about the information through a PRIA request, the pilot finally out of exasperation contacted me. I in turn contacted the freight operation several times, but to this day, they have never responded.
The only thing left to do was to explain the entire situation, in writing, to the new airline pursuant to the section of PRIA that mandates the opportunity to correct inaccuracies. That airline was understanding, but my client fears that the false information could surface again when he moves on to a major airline, that might not be so understanding.
The solution appears to lie in the fact that our very detailed corrective explanation appears in his current employee file. That file must be provided to any future prospective employers, and we hope it will negate the need for further explanation. I have advised the pilot to request a copy of his employee file so he can verify that our letter is there. In other words, having a complete record at a current employer will demonstrate for future employers that there was an error, the pilot exercised the right to correct that error, but the former employer refused to comply, which was no fault of the pilot.
Overall, PRIA needs some work. It needs to give pilots a greater measure of protection and the means to address inaccuracies without the necessity of contacting an attorney. The FAA needs to actively pursue employers who provide knowingly false information - period. That false information should not be qualified by some requirement of the interplay of a federal criminal statute.
PRIA may never be changed, but in the meantime, pilots would be well-advised to stay on good terms with employers, provide them with notice of their departure, and if possible, offer to help train a replacement. Of course this may not all be practical. If a pilot does find some surprisingly bad information in a work file, that pilot should be sure to explain the problem in detail and in writing to the new employer, and request that the explanation be placed in his file.
Above all, pilots must be truthful in interviews. It will spare a lot of embarrassment and damage control later on. A pilot does not have to be an innocent bystander regarding this poorly drafted law.
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