‘Using us as political pawns’: federal workers reel over threats of firings and withheld back pay

Employees express growing anxiety over their pay - and the future of their jobs - amid the US government shutdown

With no end of the federal government shutdown in sight, an estimated 750,000 workers remain furloughed. Hundreds of thousands more are working without pay. They are being held hostage by a political dispute", according to union leaders, as Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked.

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Donald Trump suggested that furloughed employees would not necessarily receive back pay - despite a legal guarantee - prompting further unease throughout the federal workforce. There are some people that don't deserve to be taken care of, and we'll take care of them in a different way," the US president said.