Foreign workers at US military bases in Europe go unpaid as shutdown drags on

The ongoing US government shutdown, the longest in the country’s history, is rippling far beyond American borders, with thousands of local employees at US military bases in Europe now caught in its fallout.

Nearly 2,000 European workers stationed at U.S. bases have seen their salaries disrupted since the shutdown began almost six weeks ago. In some host nations, governments have temporarily covered wages, anticipating reimbursement once the US budget impasse ends. But in others, including Italy and Portugal, employees have continued working without pay as political gridlock in Washington drags on.

“It’s an absurd situation because nobody has responses, nobody feels responsible,” said Angelo Zaccaria, a union coordinator at the Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy. “This is having dramatic effects on us Italian workers,” he told the Associated Press.

Foreign nationals employed at U.S. bases perform a wide range of duties  from food service and maintenance to logistics, construction, and specialised technical work. Some are directly hired by the U.S. government, while others are employed through private contractors.

How these workers are compensated depends on bilateral agreements between the U.S. and each host country, explained Amber Kelly-Herard, spokesperson for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa. Despite the funding freeze, she said, local employees are still expected to fulfil their contractual duties.

The prolonged shutdown, which has already paralysed parts of the U.S. government, now threatens to strain diplomatic ties as European partners bear the cost of Washington’s political deadlock.

The AP reached out to the Pentagon with multiple questions on the pay disruption, but was only provided a brief statement that did not acknowledge it.

“We value the important contributions of our local national employees around the world,” it said. The official declined to answer any follow-up questions.

In Germany, the government has stepped in to pay the salaries of nearly 11,000 civilian employees that work on U.S. military bases, the nation’s finance ministry said in a statement. American facilities in Germany include the Ramstein Air Base, a critical hub for operations in the Mideast and Africa and headquarters to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

Workers in other countries have not been so fortunate.

More than 4,600 Italian nationals work at the five U.S. bases in Italy, said union coordinator Zaccaria. Of those, over 900 local employees at U.S. bases in Aviano and Vicenza, and another 400 workers at a base in Livorno have not received their salaries since the shutdown began.

“We are waiting for urgent responses, as there are workers struggling to pay their mortgages, to support their children or even to pay the fuel to come to work,” Zaccaria said. He said the union had asked the Italian government to intervene but that, in the meantime, those affected were continuing to show up to work.

“Unfortunately, we see no political will to solve this situation, but we’re asking the Italian government to intervene,” he said.

In Portugal, a similar situation was playing out at the Lajes Field base in the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, where more than 360 Portuguese workers have not been paid, according to Paula Terra, head of the Lajes base workers’ committee.

Terra said unpaid staff are still turning up because furloughs aren’t legally recognized in a U.S.-Portugal agreement on the base. Staying away could leave them open to disciplinary proceedings, she added.

But this week, the Azores Islands regional government approved a bank loan to pay the Portuguese workers at the base in the interim. Terra said she was waiting to hear when workers could claim the money.

Germany is counting on being repaid once the shutdown ends, the finance ministry’s spokesperson told the AP, adding that during previous shutdowns, civilians were paid by the U.S. government.

The governments of Poland, Lithuania and Greenland did not respond to a request for comment from the AP about whether they, too, have also stepped in to pay local workers.

Linda Bilmes, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and an expert on public finance, said local workers at U.S. military bases who work as contractors are generally most at-risk of losing pay during U.S. government shutdowns.

She added that the U.S. government in the past always paid back full-time employees, including those working at overseas facilities who may be foreign nationals — but that contractors are not always covered, which is why some add extra fees in their contracts to cover potential government funding stoppages.

“But I doubt anyone anticipated this length of delay,” Bilmes said.

In Spain, where the U.S. operates the Moron and Rota military bases in the south, a union representing more than 1,000 Spanish workers said a delay in payments had been resolved last month with the help of the Spanish government.

Spain’s defence ministry did not respond to multiple requests seeking to confirm its involvement in resolving the pay issue.

With inputs from agencies