Why SHOULD furloughed workers get paid for the time that they didn’t work? (yes, I know it is the law, but WHY is it a law? )
Laid off private sector workers don’t (generally) get back pay for the days that they were laid off. Why should government workers?
Personally, again, if your job is so non critical that you can be furloughed and no one notices or cares then you shouldn’t have a job. If your job is not listed as an “Essential” job, then do we really need you?
Well, one argument could be because they’re not laid off. The furloughed workers I know are required to check their email daily to await further orders, which could include being put back on work status (i.e., working without pay like TSA, etc). While might be able to take a second job in the meantime, that would be subject to ethics approval (have to make sure there’s no gov empty double dealing) with the possibility for substantial penalties if approval is skipped. But, as you’d expect, most of the ethics folks aren’t “essential” so good luck getting that approval. Heck, even resigning is tough because large portions of HR are non-essential so getting all the retirement, insurance, etc worked out is going to be tricky.
So, many fed workers are in a weird purgatory where they can’t work their job but it’s also very difficult for them to legally leave it for another job. While I’m certainly not saying that it’s efficient or economical, there’s some logic to providing back pay for the period where you kept folks on call and forbade them from making money through other means.
Interesting viewpoint. Hadn’t seen it from that level.
My question is, if they are gonna get paid anyway, why keep them from working?
I’m with you there. The short answer is that it’s illegal per the Antideficiency Act but I honestly haven’t dug into the rationale for why that should or shouldn’t be the case. So, perhaps that’s a serious conversation that should be happening. Because paying the same amount of money for a lot less work is a pretty poor deal and the notion that it will motivate Congress to avoid shutdowns obviously isn’t working as intended…
The short answer is that this doesn’t make sense and they shouldn’t get paid.
The longer answer is that the law was designed to remove responsibility for awarding retroactive pay from Congress so they wouldn’t take the heat in the future. It was Obama end of term legislation and signing it was one of Trump’s first missteps his first time in office.
If you can be furloughed because your position is non-essential, you shouldn’t be coming back to work and those positions should be permanently removed from the roster.
They are all union labor, let their unions take care of this – especially as they are urging members to attend the No Kings nonsense this weekend. De facto strike, de facto strike wages.
Why? Same reason congress critters get full retirement with bennies, after 2 or six years in office, they passed the legislation and some president signed it into law. Wudda deal!
Grift and graft is the current modus operandi, for our rulers.
If I were king, I’d fix it! Might have to kill a few thousand, but the rest would fall in line! Though, from my current position, in the woods of Tennessee, I don’t see ascension to kinghood very likely. Also, in my old age, I’ve softened up a bit, (wusified?) I won’t even kill the local rattlesnakes when they wander into the yard, I haul them off to the BUS station, NOT the train station. They are much more trustworthy and useful than congress critters.
Hope I stayed within the lines.
Yes, you did “stay in the lines”.
Having said that, your comment wasn’t helpful, but at least it wasn’t stupid nor offensive nor looking for trouble. i
You didn’t find the 1st paragraph true, useful to a non knower?
The irony is ‘who’ is designated as ‘essential’ workers. Those decisions often make NO sense if you’re looking at it from the outside. And honestly, sometimes from the inside it doesn’t make any sense, as it appears ‘random’ at best.
GOVERNMENT is non-essential. The sooner EVERYONE comes to that OBVIOUS realization, the sooner we can get to work on a civil society based on voluntary cooperation rather than legalized violence and theft.
hey, yer back from hiding after the last un-backed-up claim.
I guess weasels think that people forget them after enough time.
I didn’t.