Back pay for contractors left out of shutdown deal
Funding agreement reached by Congress affects hundreds of NASA workers
Aprovision that would have restored back pay following the government shutdown for federal contractors, including hundreds who work for NASA on the Space Coast, was left out of a funding deal that Congress reached this week.
The 35-day government shutdown, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25, left an estimated 1,400 workers at Kennedy Space Center without work. Most of those employees were federal contractors, who work in tandem with civil servants as electricians, engineers, safety specialists and in other positions that involve spacecraft and rockets at the Cape.
After the end of the shutdown, President Donald Trump passed an agreement ensuring civil servants — whether they worked during the shutdown or not — would get back pay for the five weeks of lost paychecks. Government contractors, whose back pay is dependent on their individual contracts with government
agencies, were not included in that agreement.
Across the nation, it’s estimated that about 800,000 civil servants and 1.2 million government contractors were impacted by the shutdown. During the government closure, many were forced to cut expenses, dip into their savings, use vacation time and visit food pantries to scrape by.
Edward Grabowski, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061, which represents about 600 NASA contractors on the Space Coast, said the funding deal at least diminishes the worry of a second potential shutdown this year — but without the back pay, members are suffering.
“It’s disappointing because people are still on that hope that they will get back pay. If they don’t get it, a large portion of their annual income is just gone with no hope of getting it back,” Grabowski said Thursday. “The good news is his they have a deal and they stay open, at least we don’t have to go through another one.”
The unprecedented length of the shutdown inspired a conversation on the rights of contractors, spurring several bills that aim to ensure con-
tractors receive the same benefits in the event of a closure as their civil servant counterparts.
Those bills are still ongoing, but the lack of inclusion of back pay in the funding deal was a blow to contractors’ efforts.
“The rejection of federal contract worker back pay by the GOP leadership in this funding deal is outrageous and unfair,” said Robert Martinez Jr., president of the Machinists Union International. “We urge Republican and Democratic leadership to quickly pass legislation to secure back pay for the federal contract workers.”
Martinez called the shutdown a “35-day disaster that created extreme stress for federal contract workers and continues to put their financial well-being at risk.”
The machinists union is backing Rep. Donald Norcross’ Fairness for Federal Contractors Act, which would give contractors retroactive pay of up to $1,400 a week. The New Jersey Democrat’s bill also has the support of Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.
In the Senate, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, has proposed the Fair Compensation for Low-Wage Contractor Employees Act. The bill would cover back pay up to $965 a week. It has the support of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and bipartisan support from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Smith said the contractor back pay provision is an “important piece of unfinished business.”
“I’ve talked with many of my colleagues on both sides of our aisle here in the Senate chamber and I have not found a single person who says that contractors don’t deserve back pay,” Smith said. “… So why not provide back pay to contractors in the funding bill before us today? Because it appears the White House apparently has said not to do it. But I’ve talked to the White House just in the last week. I didn’t hear any fundamental reason why our plan couldn’t go forward and why challenges couldn’t be resolved.”