87 hundred civilian workers are back on the job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. The Defense Department reinterpreted the law in order to end furloughs. Lewis Wallace of member station WYSO in Yellow Springs reports.
Just before the shutdown, Congress passed a law that said military personnel AND the civilians who support them would be paid.
But for most of last week, the DoD furloughed about half of its 800,000 civilian workers.
The reason?
The Pentagon says its own lawyers and the Department of Justice didn’t think the law applied to ALL civilians…only those who directly support military.
In a new twist, most civilians have been called BACK in...basically because the lawyers decided to be more liberal in their interpretation of the word “support.”
And no one seems to be complaining about that…
In a statement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the DoD has tried to keep as many civilians at work as possible, noting quote “This has been a very disruptive year for our people.”