In the news, it says "essential" government employees would be required to work without pay. How?

Question

In the news, the reporters have been talking about "essential" (real quotes, not scare quotes) government employees being required to work without pay by these two statements (paraphrased).

All employees will have to forgo pay during the shutdown.

Essential employees will be working during the shutdown while non-essential employees will be sent home.

One example of such claims: https://www.kcra.com/article/what-a-partial-government-shutdown-could-mean-for-you/25648684

I remember the Thirteenth Amendment banning "slavery and involuntary servitude" and this is in fact so powerful that the federal government cannot force private practitioners to take Medicare at all.

I again remember the ability to draft for reasons of national security, but I know of no case where that drafting was not with full pay according to the normal government pay scales.

But even if the government is really out of money (which it isn't; during a shutdown it should be running a tax surplus*), I can't imagine how this leads to requiring people to work without pay. My normal assumption would be you print unbacked money if you have to (and deal with the inflation later) to pay the troops.

But they say the employees will be required to work without pay. How?

*They say the shutdowns cost the government money. The net loss is due to the almost universal practice of paying all the government workers after the fact.

Answer 1

First, slavery has literally nothing at all to do with whether or not someone is paid, nor with how much they're paid. Slavery and involuntary servitude are forced labor, not unpaid labor. If you are paying someone millions of dollars but threaten to kill them if they quit, that's involuntary servitude. If you pay them nothing but they're free to walk away, that's quite possibly legal (volunteering is often legal), often non-criminal, and if it is criminal might be just a misdemeanor.

Second, people who are required to work to a shutdown are in a pay status. They can't actually get paychecks until the government reopens, but they're legally entitled to their full pay for every hour worked. This is also why furloughed people aren't allowed to work: because federal employees are entitled to pay for hours worked, any work they do results in the government owing them money that hasn't been appropriated. Federal agencies can mostly only do that for essential tasks, so anyone not doing an essential task can't be allowed to work.

Lastly, people are only "required to work" in a shutdown in the same way civilian federal employees are always required to work: refusing means you can be fired, but you're certainly free to quit. Refusing also means you pretty much won't be paid back wages when the government reopens (if you refuse an order to work you're placed in AWOL status instead of furlough status, and back pay isn't given to people in AWOL status).

(I should note that this only applies to the pay for the hours you weren’t working; as mentioned above, employees are legally entitled to pay for hours worked. However, if you go AWOL after a week and the shutdown lasts for three, employees who spend all three weeks working are entitled to receive full back pay. Employees who worked for one week and were furloughed for two are entitled to one week’s pay, but will almost certainly get three [as Congress will almost certainly give back pay to furloughed employees]. Employees who worked for one week and were AWOL for two are entitled to one week’s pay, but will receive nothing for the two weeks they went AWOL and will possibly be fired.)

Military personnel are truly required to work (refusal can result in criminal punishment), but the 13th Amendment doesn't mean the military can't punish desertion or refusal to obey orders.

Answer 2

As a federal worker you have facts missed. You assume too much. When the federal government labels an employee 'essential', there are rules that should have been followed to get there. One of these is non-excepted activities, you need to determine how many employees you need to get your non-excepted activities accomplished; this is only one of the criteria. Since in the past there haven't been many shutdowns of extended length, various Agencies simply called an entire classification 'essential' giving little concern to any of the criteria. This was expedient and fast. Roll ahead to now, more furloughs of greater length and no one wants to put up with being ping pong balls. Federal employees want people paid and that decision is left to government. The back pay bill is already signed so all employees, essential and non-essential, will get back pay for all furloughed hours. But many employees have only ever been called 'essential' with no consideration of what activities that they are doing and may be entitled to be on furlough.