White House memo says 750,000 furloughed federal workers aren't entitled to back pay
White House memo says 750,000 furloughed federal workers aren't entitled to back pay
74 comments
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Why it matters: If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump's pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers after the shutdown.
I'm not sure it would. In the past, federal workers were always paid after the government opened up. If they aren't paid this time when the GOP holds both the Executive and the Legislative branches, it would be silly to claim the Democrats would have the power to withhold payment.
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This has occured at least 47 times I believe since Reagan started shutting down the government. If they got paid for all 46 other times, and not this one.... It really should be pointing to this administration
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Why would that stop them from saying so?
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It's not being silly, it's just lying. The Republicans do it all the time. Nothing special about this time.
They lie, we know they lie, they know we know. It's just arrogance and abuse of power.
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Trump was also asked whether his administration intends to honor a law he signed during his first term, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which requires furloughed workers to be paid “at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends.”
Laws are not real any longer. No more laws; no more rules.
Oh so the Trump administration just deleted the gov't online reference to that law ...
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Correct. The law is now Calvinball.
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I have a friend that works for TSA. A few days ago he showed up to work only to find that 27 of his peers decided not to. And considering they won't get back pay, what's the point? People need to feed and house themselves and the government has made it clear in the past that they're not about to treat essential employees as if they're actually essential.
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They will get back pay. The law says they get back pay and these statements have not changed the law.
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Does this include ICE agents? That would be pretty funny.
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Yup they are currently unpaid. Unsure about bonuses since they make a decent amount in that.
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Do we even know if they're being paid the bonuses that were promised?
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I used to want to work for the federal government and once upon a time it was a very good job. Decent, but not the best, pay along with good health benefits, large amounts (in US terms) of leave, extra holidays, and a pension program. Now I don't see why anyone would want to work for the federal government. A common sentiment amongst government workers are that you are there for at least one of four things:
1.) Early retirement/pension - In the older days you could potentially fully retire as early as 50.
2.) Healthcare - You got to keep it into early retirement and it was typically better than any private or business insurance or medicare.
3.) Stability - Once in you would probably never be laid off or fired.
4.) Ulterior motives - A lot of government workers do what they do because they get something else out of it. Someone working at the EPA might get a sense of fulfillment and earnestly believe they are making a difference. Likewise someone working in ICE might be getting their failed-military-abuse-of-power rocks off on the bit of power they have over others.
Well the stability is gone, the pension only matters if you have the stability to get to 30 years, and the healthcare is getting worse over time.
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They also used to have better-than-normal paid time off but non-govt companies have caught up on that, especially in the tech sector.
And they had a good 401k equivalent (403b) match, but again companies have caught up or surpassed this now.
Some of my old colleagues still work in govt and they have been MISERABLE for the past year and a half (return to office, DOGE/deferred resignations, chronic understaffing, and now this shutdown nonsense).
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They also used to have better-than-normal paid time off but non-govt companies have caught up on that, especially in the tech sector.
Unless you try to actually take it. That can be career-limiting.
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More proof that the GOP and all their supporters are enemies of the people of the United States of America.
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He's going to steal backpay for workers he sent home. That's wage theft, and a good way to get your employees to hate you until the end of time.
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this is why air traffic controllers are calling in sick. they took pains to assure workers would get pay eventually which is why this never happened on previous shutdowns. real genius this guy and the thing is even if he reverses course you can't trust him to not reverse again.
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If there's no backpay, think they'll demand back taxes?
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Something something UNIONS
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Memos aren't law. Back pay will be payed eventually.
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Agreed. There's clearly a 90+% chance there will be back pay.
I get that the Trump administration is loathsome, but it's really disheartening the number of people on here who will throw all logic and reason out the window if it means they can doom-jerk over how evil the administration is.
Once the back pay inevitably happens, everyone who said otherwise on here will just ignore they were wrong, and move on to the next thing that's obviously false.
To be clear, I'm not defending the Trump administration. It's been a dumpster fire, and they obviously aren't above completely violating the law to get their way.
But denying back pay doesn't make sense on its face. It's a nonsense position. And the fact that people can't see that just feels like backwards QAnon to me.
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With the unfathomable uncertainty that government employees have faced this year, who can really say what will happen in regards to back pay, RIFs, etc. illegal lines have already been crossed, and I imagine there will be years and years of lawsuits. Personally I still have a sliver of hope that our laws will be upheld one way or another (either by the admin realizing they need to follow the law, or by force of the courts) -- despite much evidence to the contrary.
I hope this is just another empty threat they don't follow through on, even though the memo alone has undoubtedly caused more stress to the government employees. If they try to actually withhold back pay and the courts stop them, then it will at least help give credit to the courts upholding the law. And if the courts allow this to happen... Well, I keep hearing how we are living in unprecedented times, so I also wouldn't be too surprised at this point.
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Don't tell Trump that.
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Says who?
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The year is 5157, and JcbAzpx is finally right about one thing...
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The "law doesn't matter" fatalists forget that the people who would be needed to implement a court ruling are the same group being threatened with their pay being withheld. The core of legal fatalism is that few people will risk their own personal best interests to stand up against tyranny, but in this case they're not standing up for someone else, they're writing checks to themselves and all their work friends for thousands of dollars. They're in a better material situation by writing the check, getting fired, and filing a lawsuit than just meekly going along.
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This is what concerns me about this whole thing, its like it's to break morale of all the government workers to either leave or become so desperate to keep their job and pay that some may be willing to do anything in those specific roles they're targeting.
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Fuck those guys for letting Congress shut them down. Am I right?
/s
74 comments