Anyone Think This Shutdown Could Go Through October? (contractor, income)

[sullyguy]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Does anyone happen to know if that was true at contractor companies decades ago?

I worked at NRL as a contractor in the 80s - when budget cuts hit and another contract was not in the stars, my VP-boss said "You can come back to HQ and work on databases or you can leave" (she said it in a nice way that I did NOT take negatively at all). So in the mid/late 80s there were government contractors who at least gave lip service to retaining (ahem...valuable) employees.

[airjay75]

House just passed bill authorizing back pay for federal workers. Believe it or not, the vote was 407-0.

[Caladium]

Yay--I hope. Were there any riders on the bill? Please tell me there weren't added stipulations that will sink it.

[sullyguy]

Originally Posted by airjay75

the vote was 407-0.

Yes, a number of reps didn't vote.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

I hope these contractor companies reimburse their employees; the fat-cat CEOs and lobbyists are not going to hurt; they can well afford to do the decent thing for their workers. It's also in the long-term interest of those companies to retain their employees and keep morale high.

If there were a "Furloughed Contractors Fund" for federal employees to donate to, I would gladly chip in.

There's been an incredible change over the last 10 years on how to treat an employee. It's all about profits, and employees are disposable. A company then wonders why it gets what it gives.

I've been lucky in that the private sector contractors I worked for in the past, did pay me during shutdowns. The last pay I do remember was actually during Hurricane Isabelle when the storm impacted our ability to enter the building. I was paid for 3 days of not working. I worked for a small (20 person) company that only had one contract, yet their profit margin was big enough, they could afford to do this and knew it was the right thing to do. In return, I gave that company many hours of my time and I didn't get paid.

The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman/SAIC folks make a TON of money and they could pay their employees out of their overhead if they felt any care for them. But they don't.

[Iggier]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman/SAIC folks make a TON of money and they could pay their employees out of their overhead if they felt any care for them. But they don't.

Yep. I made the same point in this tread, post #7.

My own experience is quite ironic. During the 1995-1996 shutdown I was a contractor working on a federal project. The project was issued a stop order for the duration, but my company paid me my salary throughout the shutdown.

Go figure that today, I am a federal employee. Until a couple hours ago when the House passed retro-pay for furloughed feds and until the Senate does the same, back pay isn't a given.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman/SAIC folks make a TON of money and they could pay their employees out of their overhead if they felt any care for them. But they don't.

That's one reason I will never work for a defense contractor, even though the money is reportedly good. They can get away with this when the economy is bad, but when the pendulum swings back and there are more jobs than people to fill them, they'll be scrounging for employees and wondering why no one is interested.

[Old Monkey]

Update:

According to WaPo, the Sec. of Defense is using the "Pay our Military Act" to order 400,000 civilian Pentagon employees back to work. Must be some kind of budget yoga...

[snoopygirlmi]

Originally Posted by Caladium

..Personally, I think they should solve this the way the Vatican elects a new pope: Lock everyone in. No leaving the chamber until the matter is solved. No pay, no phones, no messages until you do. No food except the crappy cafeteria food that gets sent in. Then we might actually get something done.

Yes! Great idea!

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

Update:

According to WaPo, the Sec. of Defense is using the "Pay our Military Act" to order 400,000 civilian Pentagon employees back to work. Must be some kind of budget yoga...

It kind of makes sense. I always feel like takes a few DoD civilian servants out there in some way/shape/form to support a military person. How to you insist that the military stay active, yet furlough their support structure (much of DoD). While many DoD civil servants never work overseas or on a base, just about everything they do is in support of the troops. If they are off for any real length of time, support/supplies/everything the troops need or use in their jobs gets slowed down or put on hold. Just having that one or two essential person working in each division of DoD isn't cutting it, they are just putting out fires.