The federal government has come out with an answer to the ever-growing number of TSA officers calling out sick rather than work without pay during the government shutdown. Unfortunately, that answer boils down to “show up or else.”
The Office of Personnel Management has issued a memo to agencies calling on them to punish workers who call out sick. Specifically, “If an employee is excepted from furlough, and therefore required to work during the shutdown yet has failed to do so, he or she would be considered AWOL during the period of any such unauthorized absence.” Then, “The agency may use its discretion, based on the facts and circumstances of the employee’s situation, to apply appropriate consequences based on the AWOL status.”
Going to work imposes costs on people—commuting, paying for child care, giving up the possibility of a second job—that many people simply can’t afford if they’re not being paid regularly. While the OPM memo also said that once the government reopens, workers can apply to be reimbursed for transit benefits they missed during the shutdown, that’s not enough to pay bus fares or buy gas right now.
People are not calling out sick because they don’t want to do their jobs. They’re calling out sick because they’ve been put in an untenable position. Reopen the government and this problem goes away—along with a lot of others.