Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Will the GOP screw federal workers again?


Well, they do look for every opportunity to screw every worker that they can. And it would be out of character to pass up a chance to screw more than 800,000 workers at one shot.
A government shutdown next week would jeopardize the paychecks of more than 800,000 federal workers who could be told to stay home. More than 2 million other employees who are deemed essential by the government — including the active military — would be entitled to their salaries but might not get paid on time.

While there is no law requiring that nonessential employees be compensated if they are ordered off the job, Congress has in the past voted to reimburse their losses once shutdowns ended.

But this go-round could be different. The bitterly divided Congress includes many lawmakers who are unsympathetic to the plight of federal workers and could be loath to help them recoup their money.

“It’s a very different time and a very different Congress,” said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 federal workers. “I’m concerned when employees who were here remember that last time employees were paid and think it will happen again, because it’s not a given at all.”

After the past two shutdowns in the 1990s — when federal workers were furloughed for five days in November 1995 and 21 days from December of that year into January — Congress passed a bill awarding them back pay.
It would definitely be a flawed judgement to call Members of Congress "essential workers" but it is hard to imagine any scenario where they would withhold their own meager pay.

// posted by montag @ 2:42 PM
Comments:
I'd rather like it if Obama would react to a shut-down by telling Congress that THEY are non-necessary and to go home without pay. I seem to recall that a President CAN disband Congress under certain circumstances....and I have to say, this particular Congress is just a-begging for it.
# posted by Anonymous Syrbal/Labrys : 12:23 PM
 

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