The US government pays its staff NOT to work

WASHINGTON—As Congress looks for ways to cut its $1.3 trillion deficit, the federal government is paying its employees $137 million a year not to work for Uncle Sam. Not working. That’s right. The Office of Personnel Management reports that taxpayers paid Federal workers over $137 million in 2010 to work as representatives for government unions, up from $129 million in 2009.

The time that union representatives spend not working for taxpayers is labeled 'official time' by OPM. According to the report, 'Official time is time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work.' Under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, this is perfectly legal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2071716/The-US-government-pays-staff-NOT-work.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

More Than 60% of Americans Support Congressional Pay Cut, Say Congress Should Work

In a year where the U.S. congress has a record-low approval rating, it is perhaps to no surprise to many that a majority of voters say congressional lawmakers should have their salaries cut, their pensions eliminated, and be required to spend more time on Capitol Hill, according to a new poll from The Hill.One thing is for sure -- Americans across the country believe the U.S. Congress need to have their salary and benefits reflect their disappointing job performance. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said the $174,000 base salary for Congress should be lowered, while 69 percent said congressional lawmakers' pensions should be discontinued and another 64 percent said they should be required to work more days each year.  
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/262323/20111206/60-americans-support-congressional-pay-cut-say.htm

Must be Nice

China Rejects U.S. Ruling on Solar Imports

China said a preliminary ruling by a U.S. trade panel that imports of Chinese solar panels are harming the domestic industry shows the country’s “inclination to trade protectionism.”

The U.S. International Trade Commission on Dec. 2 took the first step toward imposing added tariffs on Chinese solar imports, voting unanimously in Washington on a petition by Bonn- based SolarWorld AG (SWV) that called for antidumping and countervailing duties. The commission will now hold a full investigation.

“The ruling was made without sufficient evidence showing U.S. solar panel industry has been harmed,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website yesterday. The decision was taken “regardless of defense opinions from Chinese firms, as well as opposition from the U.S. domestic industries and other stakeholders, which prominently shows the U.S.’s strong inclination to trade protectionism and for which China is deeply concerned.”

The Chinese government uses cash grants, raw-materials discounts, preferential loans, tax incentives and currency manipulation to boost exports of solar cells, according to SolarWorld’s Oct. 19 complaint to the ITC and the U.S. Commerce Department. SolarWorld, a maker of solar modules, is seeking duties to offset the practices.

US jobs report: No relief from mass unemployment

The US employment report for November, released Friday by the Labor Department, was hailed by the Obama White House as a significant improvement. In fact, the report shows that the US economy remains mired in mass unemployment, with conditions deteriorating for employed and unemployed workers alike.

The survey concluded that the US economy recorded a net gain of 120,000 jobs last month, below the number of new jobs needed to keep pace with the monthly growth of the population. Previous post-recession recoveries typically saw monthly payroll gains of 200,000–300,000.

The Labor Department revised upward its earlier figures for job growth in September and October, adding a total of 72,000 jobs for the two months. The October figure was raised from 80,000 to 100,000 and the September figure from 158,000 to 210,000.

While the official unemployment rate fell from 9 percent for October to 8.6 percent for November, the drop was largely due to a mass exodus of long-term unemployed and discouraged workers from the labor force. Unemployed workers who have not looked for a job for more than a month are not considered part of the labor force. Thus the staggering labor force decline of 315,000 last month is a more accurate reflection of the social impact of protracted mass unemployment than a net job gain nearly 200,000 lower than the labor force contraction.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/econ-d03.shtml

Health Care for a Changing Work Force

Big institutions are often slow to awaken to major social transformations. Microsoft was famously late to grasp the importance of the Internet. American auto manufacturers were slow to identify the demand for fuel-efficient cars. And today, the United States government is making a similar mistake: it still doesn’t seem to recognize that Americans no longer work the way they used to.

Today, some 42 million people — about a third of the United States work force — do not have jobs in the traditional sense. They fall into a catchall category the government calls “contingent” workers. These people — independent contractors, freelancers, temp workers, part-timers, people between jobs — typically work on a project-to-project basis for a variety of clients, and most are outcasts from the traditional system of benefits that provide economic security to Americans. Even as the economy has changed, employment benefits are still based on an outdated industrial-era model in which workers are expected to stay with a single company for years, if not their whole careers.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/health-care-for-a-changing-work-force/