Free Republic

Hundreds of thousands of retail workers across the US have been furloughed from their jobs until further notice as their employers take drastic measures to cut costs during the coronavirus crisis. The retail sector has been hit hard over the past few weeks and months, and for conflicting reasons. While grocery chains and food delivery companies are scrambling to meet surging demand, other retail businesses deemed "nonessential" by the government have been forced to shutter stores and are now finding that a large portion of their business has dried up. Store closures across the country are taking their toll on...

The Pentagon is ordering most of its approximately 400,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work. The decision by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is based on a Pentagon legal interpretation of a law called the Pay Our Military Act. That measure was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama shortly before the partial government shutdown began Tuesday. The law ensured that members of the military, who have remained at work throughout the shutdown, would be paid on time. It also left room for the Pentagon to keep on the job those civilians who provide support to the military.

While the possible government shutdown means most federal employees, from the National Park Service workers to those handling your tax returns at the IRS, won't be coming into work, some bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are going to keep punching the clock. At the department's website, HHS has posted its shutdown contingency plan for its employees. Here's the relevant part for the department's Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight: Operations of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight could continue as funding was provided through the Affordable Care Act. This includes insurance rate...

<p>DALLAS -- When the week began, American Airlines' rank-and-file held the power to keep the world's largest carrier out of bankruptcy.</p> <p>By week's end, however, the pressure had shifted toward the company's executives as plans to give them bonuses and protect their pensions threatened to undermine employees' willingness to sacrifice their own wages and benefits.</p>

Think CEO pay is out of control? Wait till you see what these guys get when they retire. For a brief, shining moment, it looked as if outrage had finally triumphed over excess. Earlier this month, soon after Delta Air Lines disclosed that CEO Leo Mullin had hauled in a bonus of $1.4 million plus $2 million in free stock in 2002, howls of protest from shareholders and employees prompted a dramatic turnabout. After all, in 2002 the airline had lost $1.3 billion, slashed thousands of jobs, and seen its stock price collapse by 58%. Mullin announced that he was...

<p>DENVER, Colo. — Twenty Denver judges are donating part of their salary to bailiffs, clerks and other court employees who have been ordered to take three days off without pay to help ease a state budget crisis.</p> <p>Each judge is giving $600 toward a fund for the furloughed workers to show support for what they say are underpaid employees who keep an overloaded system running. Each worker will get $100 before the holidays.</p>