This is madness

There is nothing which prevents people from quitting.

So, no, nobody is being "forced to work without pay" from that perspective, anymore so than they are being "forced to work with pay" under normal circumstances.

If they quit, they don't get their job back when the shutdown is over, but there is nobody rousting anyone from their bed and making them go work.

How would a private company "make you work without pay"?

Walk me through that process on these facts:

You have been told by your private employer that you are not going to get paid if you go to work. It is 6 AM and your workday starts at 9 AM. Just sketch out the next three hours of your schedule for me.

Because if it was me, it would look a whole lot like "roll over, get a few more hours of sleep, go downtown to look for a job, and then hang out in front of the drugstore." *

A private company cannot "make you work" whether for pay or not. If you don't work, you don't get paid. If you are not going to get paid, then you don't have to work - you can quit. Again, they don't have to re-hire you if you quit, but I'm not sure what you are trying to say here, or whether you might have misunderstood what I had said.

If you are a TSA agent, and you go to work tomorrow, you are not going to get paid for it until the shutdown is over. You are perfectly free to quit your job and not go to work. There is nobody who can "make you work", paycheck, delayed paycheck, or no paycheck.


* - bonus points for first DUer to identify the reference

"Wages are due and payable" when they are earned. That is, they literally owe you and by rights must pay for each hour of work as soon as you work it. Of course, for practical reasons, you agree to take a paycheck every two weeks or whatever. But the wages are then due at the time they are normally paid. They can't say: as a condition of employment you must continue to work and we will pay you at a time TBD.

I actually had to deal with this in a labor dispute in CA. The company tried to withhold a paycheck for salaried employees until certain work was completed. The legal answer was that they could not withhold the paycheck. If you put in the hours, they have to pay you as usual on time, whether the job is finished or not.

But again, you seem to be missing the practical difference in the comparison.

If your private employer in California says to you, "Hey, we don't know when we'll be able to pay you again", then I would be willing to bet that most people would say, "Well, okay, I'm not showing up for work in that case".

The circumstances where people do work and do not get paid, such as would usually arise in disputes before the state labor department, are not normally under conditions where those people knew, in advance of doing the work, that there was no way to know when they would get paid.

But state labor law is never going to be relevant to federal government jobs.

And the circumstance I worked through is exactly analogous, because it was case where they were trying to delay a paycheck and told people in advance they would. They can't do it, even with advance notice. A lot of people actually do show up ( and did in my case) in such situations because they don't have another job yet and so want to continue earning money. They aren't ready to quit and they aren't being fired. Assuming they do show up, they are owed for the days work, and are to be paid on time. And they were in fact paid on time because the company had no leg to stand on.

How does that work? What if your employer is constantly late with your wages from the week or two before. Usually people get paid for services already rendered.

In Georgia, for example, I can tell you that the answer is pretty much "nothing happens" with the chronically late employer, since their state labor department is completely toothless.

But, yeah, states have all sorts of regulations about what happens in these various circumstances. The slow-pay employer is a difficult situation, unless the state has a specific penalty of some kind for that since, typically, the time it takes to file a complaint and start an action is longer than the delay in getting paid.

"Usually people get paid for services already rendered."

Correct. So "not getting paid for work you already did" is a very different circumstance from "being told you aren't going to get paid anytime soon for work you haven't done yet" because in that latter circumstance, you do have the bodily autonomy not to show up and work.

It's a shitty situation for people that are working, and not getting paid, but they are not being "forced" to work without pay. In all likelihood, they will eventually be paid for the hours that they are now working. It's not a good deal for them, but they most definitely can opt out, and go work some place else.

The better question is: Why are so many people in this country ok with it coming to this?

seems fair.

you're not a labor lawyer I take it.

in the White House for something they have nothing to do with. This guy really is the antichrist. He's a totally EVIL fuck! A narcissist, sociopath, racist and sadist. And, a dotard.

evil is too good for this one

Apparently rethugs think it's indefinitely.

are betting that Federal workers and contractors can last longer than food stamp recipients. At this point, I'm not prepared to bet against them.

Madness

I think that is what Trump has wanted all along.

Free labor

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

----------

Someone had apparently told this to Kanye, which is why he wanted to "abolish the 13th Amendment."

for more free labor - LOL for the lunatic Kanye

you taking the side of the little guy on here.

it's really incredible. one wonders what even brings you here.

the job usually comes with benefits and a pension. If they quit, then it’s pretty hard to get the job back.

So I’m sure many folks are going to try to hang on by living on any savings they happen to have (78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck), filing for unemployment, working a second job or borrowing from family.

This is madness

During a previous shutdown one of the federal labor unions started a lawsuit asserting that it was illegal. It ended when the shutdown did, but alot of legal ground was established in their favor and they are suggesting they will pick it up where they left off.

When you start a new job you have to wait to get paid...they don't pay you out everyday...in corporate America.

Because right now, even if you quit, they aren't going to pay you for past work. That can be challenged. When you quit, or are fired, they pretty much have to pay you for past work. One angle is going to be work for last year. Not clear how long they can hold back a paycheck for work in a previous year.

Wants.

Certain positions come with an "essential" classification. If they don't show up pay or no pay they will get fired.