Federal workers will get a bonus on top of salary for shutdown
The coming dark age: Because their pay will arrive late, federal workers deemed essential and required to work during the government shutdown should expect to get a significant bonus.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees could collect late-pay penalties of at least $1,160 each — on top of anticipated back pay — after missing a second paycheck Friday due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.
The supplemental pay is being sought under a Great Depression-era law that authorizes damages for workers who are not paid on time, with potential government liability nearing $500 million as workers end a second pay cycle without a check.
A law firm representing workers suing under the Fair Labor Standards Act began a lawsuit sign-up drive Thursday on 2018governmentshutdown.com. FLSA lawsuits require opt-in, and many workers missed an opportunity to join a successful FLSA lawsuit following the 2013 federal shutdown, which resulted in four days of extra pay in addition to back pay.
It’s all a racket to fleece the taxpayer. This shutdown is and continues to be a joke designed to shovel tax dollars into the hands of government workers. Those that don’t work will still be paid, according to a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House, the Republican-controlled Senate, and signed by so-called swamp-killer President Trump. Now we find that those that do work will not only get their salary but will receive bonuses costing the taxpayer millions.
Don’t complain however. We get the government we deserve, and based on recent elections, we don’t deserve much. The voters should have fired practically everyone in office in the past two decades, based on their repeated and continuing failure to do their job, while accumulating a debt that cannot be paid off for generations. Instead, the voters send them back, again and again and again. The turnover in Congress is pitiful in the past half century, so much so that these power-hungry crooks have found themselves well cemented to their cushy positions and able to use those positions to screw the country and the taxpayers.
The future of our country looks very bad. And it is even worsened in that no one is paying attention, being too busy fighting childish twitter wars over nothing.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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The coming dark age: Because their pay will arrive late, federal workers deemed essential and required to work during the government shutdown should expect to get a significant bonus.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees could collect late-pay penalties of at least $1,160 each — on top of anticipated back pay — after missing a second paycheck Friday due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.
The supplemental pay is being sought under a Great Depression-era law that authorizes damages for workers who are not paid on time, with potential government liability nearing $500 million as workers end a second pay cycle without a check.
A law firm representing workers suing under the Fair Labor Standards Act began a lawsuit sign-up drive Thursday on 2018governmentshutdown.com. FLSA lawsuits require opt-in, and many workers missed an opportunity to join a successful FLSA lawsuit following the 2013 federal shutdown, which resulted in four days of extra pay in addition to back pay.
It’s all a racket to fleece the taxpayer. This shutdown is and continues to be a joke designed to shovel tax dollars into the hands of government workers. Those that don’t work will still be paid, according to a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House, the Republican-controlled Senate, and signed by so-called swamp-killer President Trump. Now we find that those that do work will not only get their salary but will receive bonuses costing the taxpayer millions.
Don’t complain however. We get the government we deserve, and based on recent elections, we don’t deserve much. The voters should have fired practically everyone in office in the past two decades, based on their repeated and continuing failure to do their job, while accumulating a debt that cannot be paid off for generations. Instead, the voters send them back, again and again and again. The turnover in Congress is pitiful in the past half century, so much so that these power-hungry crooks have found themselves well cemented to their cushy positions and able to use those positions to screw the country and the taxpayers.
The future of our country looks very bad. And it is even worsened in that no one is paying attention, being too busy fighting childish twitter wars over nothing.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
“This shutdown is and continues to be a joke designed to shovel tax dollars into the hands of government workers.”
That may be a side effect of the shutdown, but it wasn’t the design. The shutdown was designed purely for political theater, certainly not for the wall itself. (If you can’t get what you want when holding most the cards, in what way does it make sense to believe you can do any better with a weaker hand?) Had the president been serious about funding his wall he would have pushed the issue when his party was in control of the House instead of waiting until the eve of opposition control. It takes more than a majority to control the Senate, but with a Senate majority and complete control of the House he could have either made a deal or gotten what he wanted through budget reconciliation … had he been willing to fight for it.
No, this all theater. The president campaigned by leading chants of “Lock Her Up!” and “Build the Wall!” And as much as he would love a 2020 rematch (Who wouldn’t want to run against one of the two most despised candidates of the modern era?), that isn’t going to happen. So he is out one slogan; it would be a shame to lose the other.
At some point the president will reopen the government without funding for his wall (though possibly seeking it via executive order and the protracted legal battles that will entail), and declare that he had to do so for the good of the country when it became clear that the un-American Democrats not only don’t care about border security but don’t care in the least about those poor government workers. Then he gets to start campaigning on a promise that if given reelection, a Republican retaking of the House, and complete Republican control of the Senate, he will finally Build that Wall!
That leaves only having to come up with one new slogan, perhaps something along the lines of “Phony Fauxcahontas!” or “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Hindus entering the United States until we can figure out what the hell is going on and how one infiltrated Congress!” (Hmm, that last one isn’t pithy enough, and besides, with the election of Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) & Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-CA), we now have three Hindus serving in Congress. Namaste!)
Kirk: The only area in which we disagree is what appears to me your apparent desire in your comment to place all the blame on Trump. Though you imply that any claim by Trump blaming the Democrats for any this would be false, this is clearly not true. The Democrats are very clearly playing this childish game as childishly as Trump. He has made them several offers that actually are close to matching some of their past demands, all to no avail.
We get the government we deserve. The people we chose, from both parties, reflect ourselves. And if we aren’t willing to be honest about the faults from both sides we will only get more of the same.
Mark Levin, Constitution Article V, and proposed Liberty Amendments
excerpt from July 10, 2013
https://youtu.be/XKtWK79yzuY
30:01
I place a lot of this blame on Ryan, who is an absolute globalist. He and Turtle promised Trump this would be done , but was always kicked down the road. I actually think Trump believed them, not because he is stupid, but because he thought they were men of their word.
They weren’t. And now he’s left with Pelosi.
Brendan–
Yepper– Ryan & Mitch…. “the usual suspects.”
And the current crop of repub “leadership” is just as corrupt and lacking in virtue.
Bob, you are fair to criticize my rant for having a single target when there is no shortage of blame. It’s just that the administration’s timing on this one seems particularly ham handed, most likely to yield maximum drama for minimal results.
Kirk: When it comes to government shutdowns, I am particularly tired of the effort by partisan hacks, in the media and in the general public, to always lay all the blame on the Republicans involved. This effort is so obviously dishonest as to insult my intelligence. Yet, I see it all the time.
Trump’s MO is to be ham-handed. It is no surprise here. Nancy Pelosi however has been as bad, if not worse. Yet, she gets a pass. It disgusts me.
If I pay my bills or tax late I get hit with late payment penalties (or lose the “early payment discount”), I don’t like them, but it was my fault I forgot the phone bill or the power bill. I’ve no problem with those who get their pay weeks or months late receiving compensation for employer incompetence or tardiness.