Thread: Pentagon Layoff Notifications to Be Delayed Until After Election

Pentagon Layoff Notifications to Be Delayed Until After Election

by Lachlan Markay 31 Jul 2012 95 post a comment
The Labor Department, warning defense contractors against announcing impending layoffs as required by law, is elevating election-year politics above sound policy, according to a former top DOL official.

Paul Conway, who served as chief of staff to Labor Secretary Elaine Chow under President George W. Bush, told me that DOL’s guidance, which warns that announcements of impending layoffs as a result of Defense sequestration cuts would be “inappropriate,” “comes across as very crass.”


Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, employers are required to notify workers at least 60 days in advance of potential layoffs that they expect will hit at least 500 employees. Defense sequestration cuts are expected to lead to large layoffs for Pentagon contractors. Under current law, sequestration will take effect on January 2, meaning contractors that expect large layoffs must notify their employees by November 3 – three days before the election.


DOL said on Monday that it would be “inappropriate” for those notices to go out in November, since some in Congress are working to avert those sequestration cuts. But regardless of congressional action, current law stipulates that the cuts will, in fact, take place, and employers are required to operate under that assumption.


Conway believes DOL is trying to avoid talking about impending layoffs in the height of campaign season. “Very clearly, from our perspective,” Conway told me, “they don’t want to further a bad news story less than 100 days from an election.”


An online DOL “fact sheet” says the Department does not have enforcement authority under the WARN Act and therefore “cannot provide specific advice or guidance with respect to individual situations.” But that appears to be exactly what it has done. Indeed, Conway said he could think of “no other time that it’s been done” – certainly not when he worked at the Department.


Of course, DOL can’t instruct companies to violate the law – hence the use of the term “inappropriate,” as opposed to a one with more legal punch. But Monday’s guidance appears to be an attempt to use “the weight of the cabinet officer [Labor Secretary Hilda Solis] and the weight of the department” to pressure companies to hold off on layoff announcements, Conway said.


A handful of lawmakers on Tuesday echoed that sentiment. DOL’s guidance “lays bare the obvious political aim of today’s announcement – avoiding mass layoff notices just days before the November 6th election,” said Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) in a joint statement.


Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) accused the administration of “trying to intimidate industries to not issue pink slips until after the election.”

Pentagon Layoff Notifications to Be Delayed Until After Election


There could be up to 100,000 jobs lost to layoffs. What is that going to do to the economy, these folks don't make minimum wage?

Sequestration layoff warnings won’t be coming

Labor: Budget deal possible


By Sam Hananel AP
Monday, July 30, 2012


The Labor Department said Monday that federal contractors do not have to warn their employees about potential layoffs from across-the-board budget cuts that could begin on Jan. 2.

In a guidance letter, the agency said it would be “inappropriate” for employers to send such warnings because it is still speculative if and where the $110 billion in automatic cuts might occur. About half the cuts would be in defense.

The letter comes days after a Pentagon official said Defense Department contractors could be sending their workers layoff notices four days before the Nov. 6 presidential election. That prospect has unnerved the White House because it would affect thousands of defense workers in presidential battleground states such as Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, employers of companies with 100 workers or more are required to provide notice 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoffs.

But the Labor Department letter says federal agencies have not announced which contracts might be affected by the budget cuts — known in Washington as sequestration — so any plant closings or layoffs are “speculative and unforeseeable.” It also points out that lawmakers are trying to avert the cuts, which would avoid layoffs altogether.

The letter was sent to state workforce agencies that help laid off workers find new jobs or get additional training.

The GOP chairman of House Armed Services Committee claimed the new guidance was politically motivated.

“People will still get laid off because of the president’s irresponsibility, but they won’t have the notice to protect themselves and their families,” California Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon said.

The guidance comes as major defense contractors are bracing for the possibility of mass layoffs. Lockheed Martin, for example, has told Congress that across-the-board reductions could result in layoffs of 10,000 employees out of the company’s 120,000 workers.

The military will face a reduction of $492 billion over a decade, with a $55 billion cut beginning in January, unless Mr. Obama and congressional Republicans and Democrats can agree on a plan to avert the cuts. Domestic programs also would be reduced by $492 billion over 10 years.

The automatic cuts are slated to take effect because of the failure last year of a bipartisan congressional panel to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Sequestration layoff warnings won