[ad_1]
Hundreds of thousands of federal public servants come to work every day – checking for explosives baggage, monitoring prisons, preparing to open the tax return period – even if they are not paid. You can not believe it in a private company or in almost every European country. But they continue to come to work in the midst of what is now the longest federal stop in the history of the United States.
Which raises the question: Why do they continue to manifest themselves?
Legislators are beginning to raise the idea that they may not have it and that a coordinated absence of federal officials could be the fastest way to persuade President Trump and the Congressional Democrats Find an Agreement to End the Closure:
Workers understand the power they have; For example, a strike by employees of the Transportation Security Administration would effectively invalidate air travel in the United States.
But they do not seem close to exercising this power. On Wednesdays T.S.A. reported that its national rate of unscheduled absences was 6.1%, up from 3.7% a year ago, but not high enough to significantly worsen waiting times in most major airports.
Here are the reasons why more and more federal employees always come to work without being paid.
The law prohibits them from striking
The National Labor Relations Act extends the right to strike to American workers – but it does not specifically confer this right on government employees. A law passed under the administration of President Jimmy Carter prohibits federal workers from striking. When the air traffic controllers left the job in 1981 to demand better working conditions and pay, President Ronald Reagan ordered them to return to work. When they did not do it, he fired them.
An employee deemed "excepted" for a stay during a closure – that is, forced to work without pay – withdrawing from work could result in a similar penalty. The guidelines of the Federal Office of Personnel Management prohibit excepted employees from taking any type of holiday, including holidays or sick leave, during a period of closure.
"If an employee excepted refuses to report for work after being instructed to do so, states the board, he will be considered to be absent without leave (AWOL) and will be liable to any consequences that may result.
Employees Believe in Their Mission
Union leaders and federal employees often point out that fired employees want to be reinstated in their jobs – and that unpaid employees do so mainly because they care their fate. their work, whether it is the protection of public lands, the inspection of food for security or the capture of drug traffickers at the border.
"It sounds trite, I know," said Jacqueline Simon, director of public policy for the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal labor union. But "federal employees are extremely dedicated to the mission of their agencies," she said. "They do not fall into those jobs. They believe in public service; they believe in what they do. They are not just going to leave. It may happen that some of them have to feed their families, but nobody wants to do it. "
The National Air Control Controllers Association has found" no unusual increase "in the number of missing controllers at work, the union executive vice president, Trish Gilbert, said Friday. asked if the Association of Controllers would consider organizing a strike, walkout or other action if the closure continued in the long term, Ms. Gilbert stated that the union "would neither tolerate nor support no such activity. "
" We took the oath, "she said," we know we're important to the US economy and we're going to work, we're just not getting paid. " even if it lags, people go to work. "
Workers' groups believe that lawsuit could force the hand of the government
At least six lawsuits were filed against the federal government, including the National Union of Treasury Employees. , which acts on behalf of thousands of federal employees. At least one of these lawsuits refers to a clause in the Constitution that the government can not promise to allocate funds – including late wages to workers – that it does not currently.
A US district court judge Tuesday decided not to issue a temporary restraining order allowing workers to no longer come to work or to charge them. But these cases will continue to make their way into the judicial system, with a new date set for the end of the month.
The average federal worker has lost about $ 5,000 since the plant closed last December. On Wednesday, the president was expected to sign a bill promising that these workers would receive retroactive pay.
The longer the closure, the more likely it is that workers will look for another job
Loyalty does not make workers immune to economic reality; they still have to make mortgage and car payments. In Washington's high-cost region, said Ms. Simon, a T.S.A. The employee's salary starts at $ 28,000 a year, which "gives you no cushion to absorb a salary break."
Noting the high rate of unplanned agency leave on Wednesday, T.S.A. officials said that "many employees report that they are unable to get to work because of financial constraints."
Dismissed employees can fill other jobs to make ends meet: A staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers of the White House began driving for Uber to pay the bills, the director of the board said this week. But moonlighting is much harder for excepted employees, who must always show up for their usual work every day.
With a strong job market and an unemployment rate hovering around 4%, many of these employees could end up leaving their jobs. it brings an immediate salary.
An Analysis of the Online Job Site Effectively suggests that this could already be getting ready. He reviewed the job search behavior from mid-December to mid-January for workers at selected federal agencies, including the union I.R.S. and T.S.A.
Indeed, researchers found that the number of clicks on job offers had increased by at least 17% for each of these groups of workers during this period, a sign that employees affected by the closure "are currently looking for a job more often than at the present time". year, "said Martha Gimbel, director of economic research at Indeed.
Ms. Simon said some workers might be forced to take other jobs if the closure was prolonged. For the moment, she said, there is no question of a coordinated "illness" or another interruption of work. Federal employees, she says, "share their heartbreak" and their indignation.
"They do not like being treated like hostages," she said.
Katie Rogers contributed to the report.
Source link
