The former manager for security staff at JFK Airport says that coming across guards who were asleep on the job was a regular occurrence when he was in charge.

39-year old Stephen Jackson says he busted at least six guards–some more than once–napping on the job and was told to just give them warnings when he alerted superiors at FJC Security, the company in charge of hiring for the airport.

“If you fire someone, you have to do paperwork, hire someone new and place others on overtime until you can find somebody else, so a lot of managers wouldn’t want that placed on their shoulders,” he said. “I’d be told, ‘Jackson, why do you have to make more work for us by exposing these people for sleeping? You should just wake them up and give them warnings.’ ”

The news comes with damaging photos and video of Jackson trying to wake up the employees and is especially interesting in light of the headlines the airport made last year, when a jet-skier became stranded and ended up near the property. He eventually climbed the fence surrounding the tarmac and wandered onto the runway to seek help, completely undetected.

Jackson said he was fired on a technicality after he refused to let an employee into a restricted area without an ID badge. He says he believes the company wanted to get rid of him for whistle-blowing.

Image: New York Post