Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
649848 tn?1534633700

Federal employees union sues government over lack of pay

By Caroline Kelly
Updated 8:53 PM ET, Mon December 31, 2018

(CNN)A federal employee labor union is suing the US government for requiring "essential" employees to work without pay during the partial government shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees alleged Monday that the government is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees deemed essential to work without pay.

About a quarter of the government has been affected by the shutdown, including correctional officers, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and transportation security officers. Across different government agencies, about 380,000 federal employees will be furloughed and 420,000 will work without pay due to the shutdown continuing into the new year.

AFGE filed the suit in the US Court of Federal Claims on behalf of all essential government workers, as well as named plaintiffs Justin Tarovisky and Grayson Sharp, who work for the Bureau of Prisoners.

The union's president, J. David Cox, called the requirement that some federal employees work without pay "inhumane" in a statement Monday.

"Our nation's heroes, AFGE members and their families deserve the decency of knowing when their next paycheck is coming and that they will be paid for their work," he said, adding that many of the affected workers are veterans or law enforcement. "Our intent is to force the government and the administration to make all federal employees whole."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/politics/federal-workers-sue-government/index.html

5 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
317787 tn?1473358451
Thank you Barb for the clarification. I've read that the longer this continues the more people will be out of work or out of pay. This budget that he refused to consider without the wall was only the 5th of 12 budgets need for the fiscal year. In addition to the civilians being affected are many contractors unable to work during the shutdown.  People keep saying they will be paid however there are many who won't recoup their losses from this shut down.
Helpful - 0
5 Comments
Dee, it's already affecting people, other than government workers... for instance, I had lunch with a good friend on Saturday.  One of her grandsons is in the process of starting/expanding a new business... he's just purchased some new trucks for this business but before he can put them on the road, it's necessary for him to pay certain taxes, etc.  Because IRS is shut down, he's unable to pay the necessary taxes/fees that he needs to pay; therefore, he's unable to complete the expansion of his business.  That means the work he planned to do can't be done because he can't put the equipment to work... that affects him, his employees, his clients... it's not just the government workers - there's a whole chain of events that get set into motion that apparently, the President, either doesn't think or care about...

But just put all that aside for a moment and ask yourself these questions:  The Republicans have been in power for 2 years.  Why have they not already passed legislation to build this wall if they thought it so important?  And why did the President wait until the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives to dig in his heels on the issue?  I don't think he really thought the Democrats "could" take control, but when it became pretty obvious that people were unhappy with his policies and Democratic control was  a possibility, was he, then, waiting for a reason to declare a National Emergency so he could call out the military to take control?  
I wasn't downplaying the shut down by any means. I just thought the "1/4 of a 1/4" statement was ridiculous.
I know you weren't downplaying the shutdown - and you're right... 1/4 of 1/4 is a ridiculous statement.  Perhaps some of our government people need to go back for some remedial math??

Just goes to show you, though, how huge our government really is, though - to have 1/16 of it take in 800,000 people.  
When you said "Just goes to show you, " I couldn't help but think of   Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) This will put a smile on your face.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hYGtXIqDa0
Lol - you were right; that put a smile on my face.  I haven't seen/heard her for years...
649848 tn?1534633700
It's only a few department, Ricky, but it's enough to put 800K people out of work - or I should say, 800K out of money, since almost half of them are working without pay... that's a lot of people for such a small portion of the government, don't you think?  

Now, I'm reading that hundreds of TSA personnel are calling out sick so they can go to jobs that pay so they can actually earn money to pay their mortgages, utility bills and buy food, etc after Trump says they're "happy" to be without their money and that landlords and mortgage companies will gladly give them slack...

I've been trying to figure out what world he's living in and it has to be his own little world that doesn't include those young people with small children that have to pay daycare in order to work, etc...Does he not realize that daycare establishments won't care for the children without getting paid?  Does he not realize that they can't get back and forth to work without money to buy gas for their cars?  Does he not realize that mortgage and utility companies don't give a rat's behind what the circumstances are; they want their money on time?  The answer to these questions is "no", he doesn't realize it because he's so out of touch he has no idea how normal people live.  I'm not sure anyone in Congress does.  They don't realize that these young people haven't had a chance to get thousands of dollars saved up for a rainy day and if they do have money saved, they need it for things like car repairs, medical bills, etc not for his foolish shutdown...
Helpful - 0
317787 tn?1473358451
Thanks Barb! Perfectly stated R. For someone who claims to be worried about Border Control, he's destroying morale. Working without pay has to be very frightening. Also for people continuing to work; they must be wondering if the other shoe will soon drop.  I don't know how we would survive without pay. Thinking about people that have bills automatically deducted from their accounts' people must be scrambling.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I was watching the News the other day and the guy being interviewed said "only 1/4 of 1/4 of the Government is shut down. Since having the strokes, I've grown accustomed to things going over my head but, this one I couldn't let go of. I've read measurements my entire life rather it be 10s, metric, or standard but I have never referred to a 1/4 of a 1/4. Then it hit me, it's called a 1/16th you Dumb@ss.
206807 tn?1331936184
Oh don't let him fool you, he is a very intelligent man. That's what scares me. I think he's just biding his time, setting himself up. Think about it, the man practically hypnotized people into believing he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it, he manipulated the media into practically financing his campaign. He came when the nation was ripe for the picking. After 8 years of Obama, our Border being overrun,  and the threat of Hilary running the country, all he had to do is tell people what they wanted to hear. Now all he needs to do is keep coming up with shiny things to keep us occupied while he does what he needs to do. I don't think he's the "Anti-Christ" (I always thought the Anti-Christ would have more class) but he is Evil and cares about no one but himself. Who would have thought The US would have A President that does personal business with Russia and Saudia Arabia and no one questions it. Who knows, maybe the Clintons are in bed with him but I think Trump is way out of their league. I doubt he runs in 2020 if he stays that long.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
He's scary alright, but I'm not sure he's as intelligent as he has people convinced he is.  And yes, he's biding his time, but I'm not sure for what.  You're right that he came when the nation was ripe for a change.  A lot of people didn't like Obama and wanted something different from the politically correct, gimme, gimme attitude people were adopting... I was one of those people.  I was not an Obama fan, everyone here knows that; how many times was I called a racist because of it?  Golly, I'm still not fond of Obama's policies, but I respected him a lot more as President than I do Trump and now that I know what I know, I guess he wasn't really so bad... Dang, after 2 yrs of Trump, I'd probably even vote for Hillary if she ran again, even though I'd really have to force myself...

It's too bad Trump decided he could be a "one man show"... nobody in the U.S. government can do that.  There are enough people that will rise up against that...
206807 tn?1331936184
This could be interesting. I wonder if they could picket The WH
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Why couldn't/shouldn't they picket the WH?  Except that Trump would probably come out and call them names and accuse them all of being "dumb Democrats" since he thinks that everyone who is against the border wall, hence the shut-down, is a Democrat.  Some days I simply have to marvel at the way that man thinks (or doesn't think... )
You must join this user group in order to participate in this discussion.

You are reading content posted in the Current Events . . . Group

Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Condoms are the most effective way to prevent HIV and STDs.
PrEP is used by people with high risk to prevent HIV infection.