Transportation Security Administration officers across the country are calling out sick at unusually high rates as they go without pay during the partial government shutdown, according to multiple media outlets.

With no end to the shutdown in sight, employee union officials and TSA officials said Friday the callouts, first reported by CNN, are affecting major airports and have forced other workers, who are also not getting paid, to pick up the slack.



At McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, callouts have increased to three times their normal levels, Jerome Coleman, a TSA officer and former local union president who has worked at the airport for 16 years, told BuzzFeed News.



“We’re short staffed,” Coleman said. “We’re going to do our job the best we can with what we’ve got.”

As many as 170 TSA employees at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York have called out each day this week, Hydrick Thomas, president of the national TSA employee union, told CNN. Another TSA official told the network callouts have increased by 200% to 300% at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.

The agency acknowledged the situation in a statement on Twitter, confirming that callouts have increased but that they were causing “minimal impact.”

“Security effectiveness will not be compromised and performance standards will not change,” the agency said. “Wait times may be affected depending on the number of call outs. To date, however screening wait times remain well within TSA standards.”