Some TSA HNL Employees Escape Firing In Baggage Scandal

A few of the Transportation Security Administration employees at Honolulu International Airport -- whom the agency initially tried to fire in a baggage-checking scandal -- have been allowed to keep their jobs.

The TSA released results Friday afternoon of discipline from the probe that KITV 4 News first reported in March.

In June, the TSA took steps to fire 36 employees, including six managers, after an investigation found some TSA screeners at Honolulu Airport did not properly screen checked baggage for explosives. The TSA also began the process of suspending 12 other employees.

Friday, the TSA announced it has completed the adjudication process for almost all those 48 employees.

Sources said "a few" of the 36 people targeted for firing had their terminations downgraded to suspensions, after an initial appeal.

Sources told KITV 4 News two of those keeping their jobs instead of being fired are screening supervisors, and a third person who was reinstated was a lead screener.

The TSA said of those initially fired, three people either resigned or retired. In the end, 28 employees lost their jobs and 15 others were suspended, a TSA spokesman said.

They still have the right to appeal the decisions by suing in court.

A TSA spokesman declined to comment further because department policy forbids the TSA from discussing details of personnel cases.

One of those whose firing was upheld by the TSA was Raymond Ware, a former screening manager who spoke to KITV 4 News last month.

"I believe that the firing was unfair. It was done en masse, instead of individualistically," Ware told KITV Aug. 19.

Ware said he never saw TSA screeners failing to screen checked bags for explosives at HNL.

"Whenever I walked around, the officers followed total protocol," Ware said last month.

Daphne Barbee-Wooten, Ware's attorney, said Friday she will file suit against the TSA to try to get Ware?s job back.

It will be the second time Ware has taken the TSA to court to get reinstated.

Ware, who is black, sued the agency for racial discrimination in 2003 after being fired from TSA Honolulu as a supervisor.

Five years later, a federal judge ruled in his favor, ordering the TSA to rehire him, promote him to manager and give him back pay and interest of nearly $500,000.