Well not really since they are going to get paid, but just that the money they're getting paid now will be subtracted from their eventual settlement claims from the $20B fund BP set aside.
And this isn't coming from the evil minds at BP, though I'm sure they made this very case, but this decision comes from the man President Obama tapped to be in charge of this fund, Kenneth Feinberg.
Thousands of fishermen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, out of work because federal authorities have closed much of the Gulf to fishing, are working for the Vessels of Opportunity program, skimming oil from the water and protecting coastlines.
Vessels of Opportunity "workers can file a claim, but we will subtract the amount they are paid from BP from their claim. That is how it has to work .... Of course you can file a claim. You must file a claim, but you cannot get paid twice," Feinberg told the meeting.
http://www.reuters.com/...
And the likelihood is that this will be retroactive, meaning these guys have been working for three months now, when they could have sat at home and ended up with the same money. It's creating division in the clean-up workforce as they're working beside out-of-staters and folks without claim that are getting paid and will benefit from the clean-up leading some to complain that these folks are profiting at the expense of those who have lost their livelihoods.
"This (Feinberg's ruling) means I am actually losing money because I have to pay my crew out of the money BP is paying me to clean up this oil," Larry Dossett from Biloxi said.
"If he only pays me the difference, I am in the hole. We are financially dead already."
The loss of livelihood compensation should be completely separate from any clean-up income. Period. This isn't the same as folks all banding together to build sandbag levies or clean up from floods or tornadoes because those are natural disasters with nobody or no company 100% at fault. The loss of livelihood compensation has to be paid out whether they work the clean-up or not. If it was a completely outsider clean-up work force BP would have to pay them their full clean-up wage and still have to pay the loss of livelihood damages from the $20B fund, so I don't understand of Feinberg can decide money earned in the clean-up HAS to be subtracted from claim payouts like that's the only reasonable fair obvious decision to make.
What incentive is there for locals to take part in the clean-up? This is a ludicrous shameful decision by Feinberg.
Contact your Reps, your Senators and tell them that this cannot be the case.