A320
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure
JFK was on a 4 L/R operation with southwest traffic departing 31L; along with doing the WHITE/WAVEY route swap. There was a large volume of traffic off Runway 31L going to the next sector. Due to volume; they stopped traffic going to that sector. I called JFK Local Controller and verbally stopped all departures off Runway 31L. Unknown to me; JFK Tower and New York TRACON Traffic Management Unit (TMU) were discussing southwest departures off JFK and the volume/in-trail. Someone either in New York TRACON TMU or JFK Tower believed that meant that southwest bound traffic was released and started to depart Runway 31L without my approval on JFK departure RADAR position or without coordination/approval from the JFK Sector sequencer. This caused an airspace deviation into my sector. Traffic was stopped and should have NOT resumed. JFK Tower should be mandated to get release on all departure stops from the JFK area/Departure Controller. Even if there is a fix stop by TMU. The reason is that if there is either a stop from the Departure Controller or the TMU; the sector may use that airspace for other reasons that the Tower or TMU are not aware of. The Tower or TMU just releasing traffic into a sector without the sectors knowledge is very dangerous.
N90 Controller expressed concern regarding the release procedures used for JFK Tower and the interaction of the TMU vs. the departure sectors.