WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Thursday it is moving to increase the pay and union rights for security screeners at the nation’s airports.

The Department of Homeland Security directed the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration to come up with a plan within 90 days to raise the pay of the screeners and expand their rights to collective bargaining.

The change reflects the more labor-friendly approach of President Joe Biden, granting a long-standing goal of workers at an agency created to improve airport security after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“TSA employees are outstanding public servants who work on the frontlines, including throughout the pandemic, to keep the traveling American public safe,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in announcing the plan. “They deserve the empowerment of collective bargaining and a compensation structure that recognizes and rewards them for their contributions to our safety and security.”

Lower pay and benefits than other federal workers has contributed to morale problems and high turnover among the nation’s 46,000 TSA workers, who were excluded from the General Schedule pay scale and personnel system of most other federal workers when the agency was set up as a component of DHS.

The American Federation of Government Employees and members of Congress have long pushed legislation that would put TSA officers on par with the rest of the federal workforce.

“We are just asking to be put on the same scale as everyone else. We are not asking for something different,” said Hydrick Thomas, president of AFGE’s Council 100, which represents TSA officers nationwide.