Trump’s Pittsburgh Speech Was a Paying Gig for Audience – The New York Times

Ray Fisher, a spokesman for Shell, said in an email to The Times that workers who didn’t show up for the speech would still have gotten paid for their workweek, but not as much as those who scanned in and stayed on site all day.

The day “was treated as a training (work) day with a guest speaker who happened to be the president,” Mr. Fisher said in the email.

“We do these several times a year with various speakers,” he said, adding that there was a morning session before the speech that started at 7 a.m. and lasted for three hours. It “included safety training and other work-related activities,” Mr. Fisher said.

“It was understood some would choose not to attend the Presidential visit and were given the option to take paid time off” instead, he wrote. “As with any workweek, if someone chooses to take PTO,” he said, referring to paid time off, “they are not eligible to receive the maximum overtime available.”

According to The Post-Gazette, workers were told that “anything viewed as resistance” to Mr. Trump would not be tolerated at the event, which, the workers were told, was intended to foster “good will” with the building trade unions.