Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Air Traffic Control Developmental
Other / Unknown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I had Flight Service call for a clearance request off of Sun River (S21); a non-towered field. Due to IFR traffic departing in the area; I issued a hold for release clearance. The FSS employee replied that she did not give hold for release clearances because she was uncomfortable with them. This is not the first time I've had Flight Service balk at issuing one of these. While in this specific instance it did not add an undue burden to my workload; I can easy picture situations where it would. Hold for release clearances are given because of anticipated conflict and because the Controller assumes that they don't have time to issue the clearance later. If workload is high enough for those considerations to come into play and a decision was made to issue a hold for release; Flight Service forcing the Controller to issue it later; and the plane to wait; is unsafe and poor practice. Moreover; it's ridiculous for an employee to pick and choose which clearances they'll accept from ATC. Flight Service's job is not to interpret the validity of what is issued to them. It's just plain lazy. This isn't the only Flight Service employee to refuse a hold for release clearance; it appears that this is a systemic problem. Training on how hold for releases work and how they are issued should be improved for Flight Service.
ZSE Controller voiced concern regarding Flight Service refusal to issue a 'Hold for Release' clearance to an aircraft departing a non-towered airport.