WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) — Some 1,000 civilian employees at 60 U.S. Air Force bases will be laid off in coming months because of cuts to the Defense Department budget, officials say.
The reduction-in-force is part of a personnel-slimming program begun last year and is not related to the current sequestration actions, the Air Force said in a statement released Wednesday.
The Air Force has already cut 15,000 positions from its civilian staffing to meet requirements of its fiscal 2012 budget, said Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso, director of force management policy.
“Voluntary efforts to balance the civilian workforce in FY12 have gotten us significantly closer to funded levels, but we still have a way to go in placing the number of surplus employees to funded vacancies, and RIF authorities will enable us to achieve that goal,” she said.
The RIF will allow many civilian employees to be placed in vacant positions and continue working with the Air Force.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
8 thoughts on “Air Force to lay off 1,000 civilian workers at 60 bases”
What the whole article doesn’t tell ya is the Air Force has over 1 million civilian employes . So now that you all know that how about BFD!!!!!
Things are tough all over. Deal with it.
Sure, til your safety is affected. Then of course will come the hue and cry followed by excessive finger pointing.
But upon examination in detail, you have to ask yourself, how can a force be relied upon and ever ready without the needed experience required to train?
Gone are the days where you draft some kids, put them through basic, and ship them off to a conflict. This aint the WWII era where throwing bodies at a target wins battles.
I should not comment, it’s slowly becoming your world, and you, not I must pay for the decisions made today. Good luck with that.
Another fine article written??? And you folks are pointing fingers at what??? How many civilians are there employed by the Air Force??? Millions??? The article tells you nothing let alone enough to make a statement on???
@Anonymous-do you suppose it could be more scare tactics by the administration?
@Observer-I am going to disagree with you here. We pay contractors four to five times as much as we pay our military for doing about the same job. They do it for the money and I don’t feel very bad for them as that is the risk they take. Our contractors in Iraq are pulling down 120K doing the same job a 30K soldier can do and we are paying for it. Now, that being said, I am sure there are some jobs that require professional expertise.
While some contractors are put in harm’s way overseas, that is not the typical contractor model.
You will find them in shops rebuilding engines, reworking assemblies, and rebuilding assets.
Then there is specialized training, intel, and research. Most are filled with former members of the military.
And who can blame them? So many have served for upwards of 25 years, and want to spend the end of their careers building a solid retirement. Being a contractor achieves both ends. They impart their experience, and get to retire with something more than the equal of Social Security.
I think getting a member of the military up to speed on the complex workings of many sensitive positions in months, beats a learning curve of years.
And there are more coming in September when current contracts with DOD expire. Some of these contractors provide training in specific areas that the AF cannot provide with their own manpower, or lack sufficient experience. And a vast majority of those contract employees are retired AF, and have expertise in those fields.
It’s a shame that these contract employees have no idea from January to January if they will be working or not. Going from company to company, sometimes moving every time a contract expires is no way to treat people.