By Leada Gore
al.com
(TNS)
Furloughed federal workers aren’t guaranteed to receive back pay for time off work during the government shutdown, a White House memo contends. The memo, first reported by Axios, adds even more uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of federal workers as Congress appears no closer to a deal to reopen the government.
The confusion centers on the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was signed during the 35-day government shutdown during the first Trump administration. The law has widely been interpreted as guaranteeing furloughed workers would be compensated during future shutdowns. But the memo from the Office of Management and Budget contends that the law has been misconstrued and the back pay is not guaranteed.
“Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” a senior White House official told Axios. Instead, the White House will argue the memo only covers workers furloughed during the 2019 government shutdown.
It doesn’t mean furloughed workers wouldn’t get paid, just that they would have to wait for Congress to make an appropriation to do so. Exempted employees were always guaranteed back pay during previous shutdowns but furloughed workers traditionally have had to wait for congressional approval.
Excepted employees are those who remain on the job without pay during the shutdown.
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Guidance changed
Government Executive reported the Office of Management and Budget has revised its shutdown guidance to remove references to the 2019 law. Prior to the change, the guidance said, “All excepted employees are entitled to receive payment for their performance of excepted work during the period of the appropriations lapse when appropriations for such payments are enacted. (GEFTA) provides that upon enactment of appropriations to end a lapse, both furloughed and excepted employees will be paid retroactively as soon as possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”
The latest version omits the final sentence referencing furloughed and excepted employees.
More than 650,000 federal employees are currently furloughed.
On Monday, the Senate rejected both the Republican and Democratic short-term spending bills. The House does not have any votes scheduled for this week and is set to return Oct. 14.
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