The federal government told 30 employees not to spend money it accidentally paid them during the government shutdown.
A clerical error at the Interior Business Center, which processes 240,000 federal workers’ paychecks, led to 30 furloughed employees at the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board receiving paychecks Friday morning, a senior department official told the Washington Post. Two other employees at the Interior Department were also paid.
Hours after the funds were mistakenly transferred to the employees, the board sent out an urgent email telling the employees to reverse the payment and not access any of the money.
“PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS THE FUNDS,” the email read, according to the Post. “We are working with IBC to determine how to remedy this situation and it is best if you don’t access the funds.”
Thousands of federal workers on Friday missed out on their first paychecks of the government shutdown. On Dec. 21, funding ran out for several federal agencies, which caused thousands of federal government employees to work without pay and thousands of others to be furloughed.
The D.C.-based safety board investigates chemical accidents, and almost all employees there have been furloughed, or on leave without pay, during the shutdown.
The partial government shutdown has entered its fourth week and is the longest in U.S. history.
