Posted on 01/15/2019 12:39:46 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
A federal judge on Tuesday denied requests from unions representing air traffic controllers and other employees required to work through the government shutdown that they either be paid or have the option to skip work while missing paychecks.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled to keep the status quo, saying that an order allowing employees considered essential to skip work would be "chaotic" in a best-case scenario and "catastrophic" at worst.
Lawyers for the labor unions, including National Treasury Employees Union, argued withholding pay while forcing labor is unconstitutional and violated U.S. labor laws.
Leon said only Congress can appropriate the funds to pay federal workers and would not force the Treasury Department to allocate funds to the furloughed employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Omgosh.
A rational judge!
I thought an Obama judge would order them to be paid. Quelle surprise.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up, Bobby?
A: A non-essential government employee, Miss Johnson.
The lone gunmen guy in the suit comes to mind.
I liked that short lived series.
Here I was hearing from “conservative” sites or maybe Fox? that 75% of the govt was funded already? Including “essential” workers. I now do not trust any side. Is the military being paid? Why did Trump supposedly have to pay the Coast Guard? One would think air traffic controlllers are “essential.”
75% of fedgov including DOD funded until 30 Sept... Coasties under DHS (Used to be under Treasury) not funded.
World in DC has ended and no one remembered to tell the proletariat...
The essential personnel are working. They should be paid, period. Should the non essential personnel get paid for not working? Not so much.
DK
I was an essential federal employee for a couple of decades. I knew, and everyone knew, that there was always a risk of a government shutdown. It comes with taking the job. We all were reasonably confident that when the government cranked up again we would all get paid for for the shutdown period. Even the non-essential employees, who did not work during the shutdown, would get paid. If I was still a federal employee I would be working still without getting paid and reasonably confident I eventually would be paid for the work during the shutdown. However, it is possible that I would not receive pay for that time period. I would still work because it would make much better sense in the long run to keep the job.
Maybe the Air Traffic Controllers could simply walk off the job.
It worked out so well for them in 1981...
I can appreciate your view.
When I was in the military there were often close calls as for being paid. I would have showed up anyway because I took the oath to do my duty. Actually, I did show up! LOL
There were 2 officers who were in the Medical Field who refused to show up for work on the first day of the purported shutdown. If my memory is correct they were going to be charged. I think they were actually able to resign their commissions rather than face up to what they did.
It was amazing, though. These two guys (they just happen to be males) actually thought they could not show up!!!
Can you imagine what terrible damage they could done in a war footing? Yikes.
LOLOLOL
The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and intelligence agencies are at work and being paid, because DOD was funded in mid-2018.
Coast Guard is not part of DOD. FBI is not part of DOD. FAA is not part of DOD. Etc.
He may just be trying to spark outrage amongst democrats. Of course, I could be wrong. He’s a W. appointee, and with W., you never can tell. Once in a while he appointed a REAL conservative.
“Leon said only Congress can appropriate the funds to pay federal workers...” Heh heh heh...
Okay! Put the ball right in Pelosi’s court!
“...argued withholding pay while forcing labor is unconstitutional”
NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO WORK! You can voluntarily quit.
CAN IT BE??? A JUDGE with an OUNCE of COMMON SENSE???
May make sense for GOP and Trump to propse a limited legislation authorizing pay for these workers and other critical things only.
Yes; I’m a federal employee too (not furloughed this time—my agency is fully funded—but I’ve been through 4 furloughs) and what I will tell my new hires in the future is that going forward, before accepting a job in the federal government, be aware that due to increasingly frequent shutdowns, you’d better plan to have some savings.
The problem is 1/3 of all Americans, including federal employees, have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck.
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