Employees are receiving renewed furlough notices as shutdown enters second month, this time without back pay guarantees

Source: GOVEXEC

The government shutdown is poised to enter its second month on Saturday, meaning agencies across government on Friday once again sent furlough notices to hundreds of thousands of workers.

To maintain clarity between shutdown furloughs and more permanent and planned cost-saving measures, notices are required to go out every 30 days. The current funding lapse entered its 31st day on Friday—and could next week surpass the record-setting, 35-day impasse from 2018-2019—which required a fresh, formal update from agencies letting around 650,000 employees know they should remain at home without working.

The new notices largely included the same boilerplate language as the originals that went out at the outset of the shutdown, those from several agencies viewed by Government Executive showed, with one notable difference: they no longer contained language assuring employees that back pay was guaranteed when the shutdown concluded.

“The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 provides that employees shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations ends,” read a General Services Administration furlough notice sent on Oct. 1.

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