Should furloughed government workers be paid retroactively after a shutdown? (Congressmen, Clinton)

[NeutralParty]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

It is NOT the employees fault, so why should they be punished?

Concur.

Not to mention that quite a few folks in this thread talked about what happens in the private world. Well, this is not the private world we are talking about. It's the federal gov't.

Also, earlier in the thread, somebody mentioned how workers don't get paid when they go on strike. Furloughed employees are not on strike.

Pay them.

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

It is NOT the employees fault, so why should they be punished?

I agree. The inability of the President and Congress to govern shouldn't be born on the backs of workers.

This 'federal employee' dumping is just so plainly misguided.

[burdell]

Congress and the POTUS should not be paid for that downtime.

[workingclasshero]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

There are some essential government workers (such as the military, medical staff in VA hospitals, etc) who obviously should get back pay since they did go to work during a shutdown.

But should non-essential government workers who are furloughed get back pay? Shouldn't they have to use their vacation time? Is it fair to the "essential" workers that the non-essential ones are paid just to stay home? Is it fair to the American taxpayer to pay them for not working? And then they probably can argue they need "overtime" to catch up on the work during the shutdown........

I personally think federal workers who didn't actually work during a shutdown shouldn't get paid.

they were NOT ALLOWED to take annual leave (vacation time).... vacation/sick time is PAID time off....during a shutdown they are not allowed to be in anytype of pay status

[uggabugga]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

It is NOT the employees fault, so why should they be punished?

i agree, but here's a devil's advocate-type question:

the employees did nothing to deserve a free vacation, so why should they be rewarded with one?

i voted yes to the poll, btw.

[workingclasshero]

Originally Posted by scarabchuck

I voted yes, but also think if the job you are doing is non essential, why are you there ? Doesn't make sense to me.

well that goes to all business

for example lets use a single McDonalds fast-food restaurant

out of the 20 'workers' there are any point in the day...16 are really non-essential....you could get away with one cashier, one cook, one laborer, and one leader......


so is that what people are suggesting...ALL BUSINESS (to include government) get rid of non-essential???? with that you will see 70% unemployment.... not a smart idea

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

There are some essential government workers (such as the military, medical staff in VA hospitals, etc) who obviously should get back pay since they did go to work during a shutdown.

But should non-essential government workers who are furloughed get back pay? Shouldn't they have to use their vacation time? Is it fair to the "essential" workers that the non-essential ones are paid just to stay home? Is it fair to the American taxpayer to pay them for not working? And then they probably can argue they need "overtime" to catch up on the work during the shutdown........

I personally think federal workers who didn't actually work during a shutdown shouldn't get paid.

Federal government workers, get paid monthly and in some cases bi-monthly on a salary, not hourly basis.
There was no disruption of payments, because the length did not extend past a pay period.
It was no different than a holiday weekend.

[T-310]

I say no or they can use vacation time to get paid.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by T-310

I say no or they can use vacation time to get paid.

Thing is, they can't use accrued leave.

[workingclasshero]

Originally Posted by BentBow

Federal government workers, get paid monthly and in some cases bi-monthly on a salary, not hourly basis.
There was no disruption of payments, because the length did not extend past a pay period.
It was no different than a holiday weekend.

all federal employees (minus executive level) are actually paid by the hour...they may have a listed salary, but pay and leave is by the hour (in 15 minute increments)

for us, we were MANDATED to come in Monday morning UNPAID for 2 hours (even if you have an hour commute) to sign our furlough paper work, put our out-of-office on outlook and then go home

we are paid every 2 weeks (80 hours per pay period)..pay periods start on a sunday and end 14 days later on the following Saturday.