Catherwood LibraryILR School

As the partial government shutdown stretches into its third week, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees still working but unpaid, one union leader describes the current circumstances as "involuntary servitude". The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 prevents federal employees from striking in order to prevent work stoppages that would debilitate the U.S. government, but the act probably did not foresee a situation where federal employees were required to still work without getting paid. The shutdown affects roughly 800,000 federal employees; half are on leave, while the other half - whose jobs are considered necessary to public health and safety - must report to work even though Congress has not released the funds to pay them. This category of workers includes Secret Service agents, TSA, pilots, air-traffic controllers, the corrections officers who staff federal prisons, and border patrol agents. TSA employees have reportedly called in sick at higher rates since the shutdown, but by and large federal employees have been at work. Workers who don't show up are considered absent without leave and may justify disclipinary action and termination. The American Federation of Government Employees has filed a lawsuit alleging that by requiring employees to work without pay is in violation of the 1938 Fair Standards Labor Act, but has stopped short of telling employees not to go to work.