Hundreds Of Federal Workers Look To Join Lawsuit Against Government Over Shutdown

[Tx4obama]

Hundreds Of Federal Workers Look To Join Lawsuit Against Government Over Shutdown

WASHINGTON -- Not even three weeks since the shutdown ended, hundreds of federal employees who worked through the impasse have now filed paperwork to join a lawsuit against the government over having their paychecks withheld last month, according to the lawyers handling their case.

As HuffPost reported last week, the suit alleges that the federal government broke the Fair Labor Standards Act by delaying pay for "excepted" employees who were required to work during the shutdown. Although the suit originally named just five employees of the Bureau of Prisons, many more workers are expected to join the suit as plaintiffs in the coming weeks.

At a press conference Monday, the BOP employees said they were forced to delay credit card and other payments not knowing when their paychecks would finally come through. After receiving abbreviated checks early in the month for their pre-shutdown work, the workers said they didn't get paid again until Oct. 24. They all expressed concern that another shutdown would come, perhaps as early as January, and that they'd be forced to juggle their bills once again.

"It is fundamentally unfair for us to work without pay, because we have bills, we have families, and we need to put food on the table," said Donald Martin, a BOP worker from Atwater, Calif. "I'm hopeful others will join us in this lawsuit so we can send a message to the politicians here in D.C. that what they do -- the decisions they make -- do affect normal Americans. And we do stand to repeat this process again."

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Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/shutdown-lawsuit-federal-workers_n_4214999.html

Be sure to read the rest of the article at the link, some good stuff in there

[gopiscrap]

1. I agree with them

[Omaha Steve]

2. Beat me to the post

K&R!