[Nomc] Question about Attending State Conventions as Employees

Colleagues, I recently heard about a state VR agency and its plans for how to save money on a state convention. They are basically sending the sighted employees to the convention as a work activity but expecting the blind employees to pay their own way because that's something they can reasonably be expected to be attending even if they were not employees. The agency is divided into a handful of sections, and the section where all of the blind employees work is the one not getting compensated. Has anyone experienced this kind of thing before? What arguments worked or did not work to resolve the issue, hopefully in a peaceful and face-saving way? Asking for a friend, Justin