posted on Apr, 6 2011 @ 09:07 PM
Originally posted by watchitburn
You just made alot of people feel old.
But back on topic, yes the results of a Govt. shut down would be that Federal workers would not get paid. (As far as i can tell anyway)
The most recent news is that government civil service workers / federal contractors will be placed on Furlow while a specific few are to be chosen to
remain behind to "hold down the fort". In this regard, the government has to determine who is "essential" and who isn't... Which is the reason
the Federal Workers Union recently filed a lawsuit against the government.
The recent lawsuit was filed because the Federal Workers Union filed a FOIA request a few weeks ago asking the government who would be deemed
"essential" and who wouldn't. The Federal Workers Union never got a response. The mode of thinking goes.. Since the government doesn't know
whether or not it will even happen they aren't at liberty to say who would be essential and who wouldn't (or at least not yet). That has raised a
few eyebrows, especially amongst Civil Service Employees that I know, personally.
"Essential" government workers would remain at their jobs, just like they normally would, only they wouldn't get paid. At least not right away.
They would eventually recieve backpay after a new budget does get approved.
"Non-essential" government workers wouldn't be able to work and there is no guarantee they would even make the backpay. The last government
shutdown was a long time ago. There is a specific way Congress must approve the backpay for non-essential federal workers and the last time we had a
government shutdown was a long long time ago. The economy is completely different now (Last time, they did make backpay however).
I, myself, am in charge of the drafting department for a company that works on a military installation full-time. We are not federal workers,
ourselves. However, the entire situation puts the company and others like it in an extremely tough spot.
When you have dozens of federal projects that are on-going at multiple military installations at any given time it definately gives you an extremely
cynical view of the entire ordeal. Would the federal workers running those projects even be there? Would the federal workers running Quality Control
on those projects be there? Will we be asked to continue work in the meantime? If so, which projects would continue and which wouldn't? Will the
government ever approve a spending bill that continues out longer than a single month?
There is alot of uncertainty. Especially in the Civil Service right now. I can only imagine what those meetings must be like..
-ChriS