“Making one class of people work and telling others to go home is not good management practice as it creates strife among the work groups.”
You miss the larger point. There may well be multiple classes among federal employees, but the true separation is between government employees and taxpayers. Taxpayers don’t get “back pay” for not showing up for work, no matter what the reason.
The real ripoffs of the federal government is some to the equipment systems that are pushed on the government and the technicians are forced to make them work because the contractor said it worked. IBM contracted with the FAA do deliver 36” displays for the Air traffic Controllers but could not make the system work. The next contractor also charged the government $1B for these same displays that had not been delivered. The tax payers always get the short end.