US President Donald Trump's administration is proposing that federal employees idled by the government shutdown would not automatically get retroactive pay when the standoff ends, according to an internal document described to Reuters on Tuesday.
If adopted as official policy, that could threaten back pay for up to 700,000 furloughed scientists, administrators and other civil servants who have been ordered not to work since the shutdown began on October 1, according to Reuters.
That would counteract guidance by Trump's own personnel office, which says a 2019 law signed by Trump guarantees back pay to all employees as soon as possible after a shutdown ends, whether they were furloughed or required to stay on the job. It also threatens to upend past practice in Washington over the 15 government shutdowns since 1981, when Congress has voted to restore back pay to all employees.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on the seventh day of the shutdown, Trump suggested that not all of those idled should be paid when normal operations resume. "It depends on who we're talking about," he said without explaining further.
MNA/
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