From CBS News:
… In Atlanta, some residents who tried to file critical paperwork at the Social Security office downtown say they're having a hard time ensuring they get their payments.
CBS News Atlanta saw countless people turned away by security on Thursday. A federal worker said the office is severely understaffed since employees aren't being paid to come to work. …
The office isn't closed, but a Social Security Administration spokesperson said they have reduced services. A federal worker said that only five out of 30 people who were supposed to be in the office came to work on Thursday. …
28 comments:
So this is kind of interesting. If this is a field office those employees are excepted which means the furlough doesn’t affect them they should all be there. This seems like a case of those employees knowing they can take free sick days or free leave and not show up.
FIGHT THE POWER! No checks should go out! No applications should be taken!
Wondering how many would go to work on the possibility of being paid? It’s against the law to work without getting paid in a timely fashion. This administration has made it well known that they dislike federal employees. The current leader has been known to stiff many contractors while managing his properties. Many federal employees might be putting in their retirement papers or looking for other jobs to beat the rush of federal firings that should come today. Federal employees also have bills to pay. I would have gone to work but these are not “normal” times. Good luck to all and keep the faith.
Project 2025 is full speed ahead..
Can you blame them? No pay, forced to spend money on gas/parking to come into a building to be stressed and yelled at by the public.
Everyone gets paid at the end of this, so why wouldn’t employees take time off? Especially with the way Feds have been treated this year, and everyone’s mental health suffering.
I mean I get it, I wouldn't do it but I get it. In every shutdown you have excepted/essential employees that refuse to come to work, and at the end, they get paid with zero ramifications just like everyone else...free vacation without using leave. Makes perfect sense.
Is the federal government breaking federal labor laws?
Minimum wage
The Fair Labor Standards Act gives you the right to a minimum wage. The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division enforces these rights.
What is minimum wage?
Minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer can legally pay an employee. Congress made minimum wage a law under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor, FLSA establishes the federal minimum wage for employees who work at private companies and in federal, state, and local governments.
I’d never do that to my coworkers. That being said, there is only so much stress people can handle before they break. That FO sounds like it’s at its breaking point.
Don’t doubt it, with the way they changed the guaranteed pay during shutdown it’s free leave if you can get management to approve your absence and get to be placed in furlough status even though you are excepted.
Well, that’s 25 people Trump should axe.
How do you know that federal employees will get paid? The administration lies all the time.
I’m surprised all Federal employees haven’t walked off the job yet after the way they’ve been treated this year. Perhaps this shutdown is the push that we need!
The article needs more details about the purpose of the visit to reach any conclusion about the situation. FOs are instructed to process only certain workloads during a furlough.
Federal employees ARE getting paid. It's a slight delay. Need to quit bellyaching. Those 25 who skipped town should get fired, or minimally docked pay or charged leave. I'm sorry but that's crap.
Really? How do you know that federal employees back pay will not go to the Supreme Court like everything else?
Yeah, but it's basically all of them. Just a handful of things that are no longer done during a shutdown - some of which can be accomplished online
I concur. This is disgusting. The rules need to tightened up. This is a form of fraud - stealing free vacation time. The, I'm not gonna work if I'm not going to get paid ship has sailed. Employees are guaranteed pay retroactively.
The union promotes this kind of behavior too. When is the AFGE contract going to get terminated? It's about time.
Get a life - employees will be paid.
I would agree. Now, unless they were somehow all sick, they should be charged AWOL and not be paid. I'm guessing most of them played the sick card. As a minimum we should go to required medical evidence during a shutdown. This take what you can get for free mentality is wrong.
A law was passed in 2019 that guarantees this. Granted if this goes to SCOTUS I am not certain they would follow the law since they are feckless sycophants and totally lawless!
P.L. 116-1: "Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates."
A law firm attempted to use the federal minimum wage requirements years ago (before PL 116-1 was passed in 2019) to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of federal employees being forced to work without pay during shutdowns. It was eventually dismissed by the courts, due to the fact that the affected employees were "eventually" paid.
And how do you both know these employees aren’t mentally at their breaking point? This year has been the hardest year ever in my decades long career. The FOs have had to bear the brunt of the staffing shortages and reassignments. And now they’re being asked to go without pay for who knows how long, and maybe they can’t afford to do that for too long. So maybe they’re taking a mental break from the SSA dumpster fire. Don’t judge so harshly.
30 staff members in ATLANTA?!?! That's scary in itself!
Not only is there every expectation they will get paid based on law and past shutdown practice, but they won’t be charged with leave either - again, according to law and/or some obscure labor agreement. It’s a better deal than a normal workday. Hard to believe 25 of 30 employees did this though. My experience with my fellow federal employee coworkers was that there arent that many outright scammers among us. So my guess is that this thinly sourced report is wildly inaccurate - it only cited “a federal worker..” I wish those people who support democratic values and the rule of law and the mission of the federal government would stop crying wolf over every single thing that happens. It just diminishes the credibility of complaints about the very alarming things that are actually happening.
Yo man, calm down. We don't need a bunch of elderly and disabled, living month to month out on the streets. Fight the power, but don't punish the weak. If you were kidding, than cool... if not... well. Yikes.
Sorry, they can only ask after the third day. Prove they weren’t sick. Prove it was coordinated. Good luck.
Post a Comment