(Adnkronos) – The United States reaches its eighth day of shutdown and begins to experience problems and delays in air traffic, due to the lack of security personnel and air traffic controllers. In the last two days, reports the Federal Aviation Administration, delays have been recorded, affecting 6,000 flights on Monday and 3,500 on Tuesday according to the FlightAware website, at airports in major American cities.
In theory, even with the shutdown, air traffic controllers must continue to work, without salary, like other employees in federal sectors deemed essential, such as healthcare, security, and defense. But since the shutdown began, there have been situations of work slowdowns at many American airports. And the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, announced that the number of flight controllers who have taken sick leave has increased in recent days.
The category union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, reminded its members that it “does not support, endorse or justify” coordinated actions that could compromise flight safety or cause delays. But at the same time, President Nick Daniels urged Congress to end the shutdown as soon as possible because “we cannot afford to waste time,” since air traffic controllers are due to receive their next paycheck on October 14.
Also because it does not reassure people that White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed to Nbcnews the existence of a memo stating that federal employees who have been suspended without pay are not entitled to be paid for non-working days once the shutdown ends.
This possibility would go against not only a 2019 law that requires federal employees, without distinction between those suspended and those who remained at work without pay, to be reimbursed for lost earnings once the government reopens. But also against the same guidelines published last month by the federal personnel office, which ensures retroactive pay.
According to what Axios revealed, the White House, which has been threatening another unprecedented action for days, namely to dismiss outright, and not just suspend, thousands of federal employees during the shutdown, argues that the six-year-old law does not automatically guarantee back pay for suspended employees. Any action by the White House in this regard, which has not yet moved from threats to facts regarding dismissals, would be another way to pressure Senate Democrats to approve a provisional spending measure.
