The Social Security Administration has reportedly brought back 8,800 workers that had been furloughed due to the shutdown even though they were not guaranteed pay at the time.
The National Treasury Employees Union said it represents about 1,600 of those SSA employees who included attorney-advisors and a range of support personnel and that work in nationwide posts of duty of SSA’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. These employees review disability payment claims and advise ODAR administrative law judges.
NTEU quoted an attorney-advisor who noted that missing even a week of work could undo hard-won progress reducing the agency’s disability claims process.
The FAA brought back some 800 inspectors and other oversight personnel, as other agencies have brought back personnel to support key agency missions. Those moves coincided with a recall of nearly 400,000 defense civilian personnel shortly after the shutdown commenced.
The CIA is another example where furloughed workers were recalled, having been deemed “necessary to carry out CIA’s core missions of foreign intelligence collection, all-source analysis, covert action, and counterintelligence.”
CIA director George Brennan said in a recent announcement that keeping staff at reduced levels would have presented“a threat to the safety of human life and the protection of property” and he made the decision to recall workers “involved directly in our core missions.”
Brennan also noted at the time that recalled workers would not be guaranteed pay during the shutdown, and that managers would decide which personnel in particular would be recalled.
