Workers on overseas U.S. bases go without pay as some are directed to food pantries

Workers at some U.S. military bases overseas were not paid during the shutdown, and employees at at least one base in Germany were directed to food pantries before local authorities intervened.

Active-duty military personnel around the world have continued to receive their salaries during the shutdown, although funds to pay them could dry up later this month if no agreement is reached.

But local civilians employed on overseas bases have already seen their wages disrupted, and thousands have been left without pay since the longest shutdown in U.S. history began nearly six weeks ago.

HAS the largest U.S. military base in Europe, official guidelines directed local workers to food banks before German authorities stepped in to fill the funding gap.

A list of supporting organizations on the guidance webpage for the closure of the U.S. Army Garrison in Bavaria included the German food-sharing charity Food for All, the “Too Good to Go” app and Tafel Deutschland, which it describes as an umbrella organization that “distributes food to people living in poverty through more than 970 local food banks.” The list was removed on Wednesday.

The Defense Department said the guide was intended for foreign nationals employed on base and not for U.S. troops or U.S. military personnel.

A Pentagon spokesperson told NBC News on Friday that the list “was created weeks ago when the U.S. military was concerned that its German employees were not being paid” during the shutdown.

American soldiers and civilian employees “have access to several support programs on their bases,” the spokesperson added. The soldiers “were actually paid at the end of October,” a U.S. Army Europe and Africa spokesperson told NBC News.

The German government has stepped in to pay the salaries of nearly 11,000 civilians working on U.S. military bases, the German Finance Ministry said in a statement. He hopes to be reimbursed once the shutdown is over, a spokesperson said.

While some governments have stepped in to foot the bill, others have not, with employees in Italy and Portugal working without pay as the standoff in Washington drags on.

“It’s an absurd situation because no one has answers, no one feels responsible,” said Angelo Zaccaria, union coordinator at Aviano air base in northeastern Italy.

“This has dramatic effects on us Italian workers,” he told the Associated Press.

How local employees are paid varies by country and is based on specific agreements the U.S. government has with each host country, said Amber Kelly-Herard, public affairs spokeswoman for U.S. Air Force Europe and Africa.

During the shutdown, Kelly-Herard said, local employees were expected to continue to perform their jobs in accordance with their employment contracts.

A Pentagon spokesperson said: “We appreciate the important contributions of our local national employees around the world. »

Linda Bilmes, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and an expert on public finance, said locals working as contractors on U.S. military bases are typically at the highest risk of losing pay.

She added that, in the past, the U.S. government always reimbursed full-time employees, but contractors aren’t always covered, which is why some add extra fees into their contracts to cover possible government funding cuts.

“I doubt anyone anticipated such a delay,” Bilmes said.