Sunday, October 13, 2013

I Get to Work Today! (Too bad it's only for an IOU)

A rare Sunday when I get to go to work!

Normally, I have weekends off. I am happy to give up the Sunday premium pay to have the day off and it works well with the occasional call to preach somewhere. Today, I'll be trading days off with a co-worker so that she can keep her plans of a weekend off, in spite of the government shutdown.

As "excepted" employees, air traffic controllers get to continue working. There is still no budgeted money to pay us so we are working for an IOU. Unfortunately, there is still no clear decision on whether or not we will get paid for any leave. We only get the IOUs if we show up--no sick days (bet you really feel good about a sick controller working your flights), no vacation days.

A little creative shift swapping will allow a co-worker to keep her scheduled time off without risking the non-payment of used leave. So many have helped me in the past that this is pretty much a no brainer.

I know that I will eventually get paid for the time that I'm working.
And I know that we'll be able to take care of our bills in the mean time.
But I also know that there are many people that will be in severe hardship due to the lunacy of this government shutdown.

Please take the time to call/write/tweet/email your elected representatives and allow us to do what we've been hired to do with proper compensation.

On the bright side...the Cardinals have the day off so I won't have to miss a game--until tomorrow night when I am normally schedule to work (for nothing).
Sigh.

John <><

2 comments:

Mike said...

So congress has already voted to pay everyone when the workers come back even though they are not working. You should be getting double time.

John A Hill said...

I like the way you think, Mike.