Union: Employees work without pay, or risk jobs
Pressure on excepted personnel to work without guarantee of pay violates Anti-Deficiency Act, labor leader says.
Some federal employees are at risk of being fired if they do not show up to work during a shutdown, according to a union leader.
In a March 28 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage expressed concern that excepted personnel will be required to continue working without compensation, or run the risk of being fired. These employees could be asked to work indefinitely without promise of being reimbursed for that time, which violates the Anti-Deficiency Act, according to Gage.
"Dedicated federal employees will come to work because of their commitment to the people they serve, but they should not be forced to do so under threat of termination and with no compensation," Gage wrote. "This is frankly outrageous, and we fail to see how such a sweeping order survives constitutional scrutiny."