Sweeney Welcomes Responsiveness To Plan To Pay State Workers for Shutdown

TRENTON – Senate President Steve Sweeney today welcomed the Governor’s willingness to act swiftly to protect state employees from losing pay for the time they were prevented from working because of the government shutdown by pledging to sign legislation the Senate plans to approve on Thursday.

“I welcome the Governor’s willingness to see that state employees are not penalized by losing pay for the time they were prevented from doing their jobs,” said Senator Sweeney. “I want to thank the Governor for his responsiveness when we discussed the importance of acting on this. We want to act swiftly so that there is no uncertainty in the minds of public employees who rely on their paychecks to support themselves and their families.”

The Senate is scheduled to act on legislation on Thursday that will have all involuntarily furloughed state employees under the three day implementation of the Governor’s Executive Order No. 228 receive their salary or wage payments for the period of the state government shut down from July 1 through July 3, 2017. The bill, S-3422, is sponsored by Senate President Sweeney, Senator Linda Greenstein and Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman.

“Workers who serve the needs of the public should not see their paychecks cut for a brief government shutdown that was outside of their control,” said Senator Sweeney. “No one wants to see them penalized. They are not at fault and they should not suffer any financial losses. The funding is already included in the budget that was enacted into law but we need to take legislative action to ensure payment.”

The Senate voting session is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Thursday, July 13, 2017.