Fed. Cir. May Consider U.S. Liability for Shutdown Pay (Correct)

The question of whether the U.S. is liable for failing to pay federal workers on time during the 2018-2019 partial government shutdown may be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Nine lawsuits seeking back pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act will be consolidated for purposes of considering the government’s request for an interlocutory appeal on the liability question, the appeals court said in a clerk’s order Tuesday. The lawsuits allege that the federal government ran afoul of the FLSA by requiring agency employees to work during the shutdown without paying them on time.

The ...