Trump team argues that workers furloughed during shutdown aren’t entitled to back pay

A draft memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget argues that furloughed federal workers should not be paid for the time they didn’t work during the government shutdown.

The memo states that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which is supposed to guarantee furloughed workers back pay at the conclusion of any shutdown, has been misinterpreted. Specifically, the memo cites the line in the law that says back pay is “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”

Mr. Trump signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) in 2019 during the last government shutdown. GEFTA has been interpreted to guarantee furloughed workers get paid for not working during a shutdown.

The law states that “an excepted employee 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.”

Before the law was passed, Congress had to approve measures to provide back pay for federal workers affected by the shutdown once lawmakers agreed to a funding package to reopen the government. Though Congress always voted to provide the pay, there was never a guarantee, so it created uncertainty for federal workers.

It is unclear how seriously the administration is considering raising questions about furloughed workers’ back pay or if the draft memo will become official. Any move to question workers’ back pay will likely be met with legal challenges from government employee labor unions.

The Washington Times confirmed that OMB created the memo, which Axios first reported.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed during the shutdown, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office. Other workers are continuing to do their jobs, but working without pay until the government reopens.

Government employees will receive their first post-shutdown checks this week. The checks will be noticeably smaller since they only include pay for a few days before the Oct. 1 shutdown.

Last weekend, Mr. Trump told members of the U.S. Navy not to worry about delayed paychecks.

“I want you to know that despite the current Democrat-induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny,” he said at a U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia. “Do not worry about it. It’s all coming. It’s coming and even more.”

The military is required to work during the shutdown.

The administration has also been threatening mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown.

“We don’t want to see people laid off. But unfortunately, if this shutdown continues, layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.