Congressmen Seek Answers About Keyport Furloughs
KEYPORT — With furloughs two weeks away, Naval Undersea Warfare Center employees have gotten help in trying to avoid the forced days off.
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel asking the Department of Defense how it justifies furloughing workers paid with Defense Working Capital funds, like most Keyport employees. The letter was signed by 30 other congressmen, including House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, D-Tacoma.
Hagel announced in May that civilian defense employees will be required to take 11 days off. They’ll begin the week of July 8 with one day per week through September as the Pentagon responds to a $37 billion deficit.
Working Capital Funds rely on sales revenue instead of direct congressional appropriations. Customers send funded orders to the service providers such as Keyport, which furnish the products or services, pay for them and bill the customers for reimbursement. Keyport workers believe because they’re under the Defense Working Capital system, the Pentagon wouldn’t save money by furloughing them. It might even cost more because people will have to work overtime to make up for furlough days.
The congressmen want to know whether Defense considers civilian employees at Working Capital fund entities to be indirectly funded government employees of the Department of Defense. As such, they would be legally protected from furloughs. They’re also asking Defense to show how the days off would reduce expenses and provide an estimate of the savings.
The Bremerton Metal Trades Council, which represents 696 Keyport workers, and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (more than 200) have been leading the push. Naval Undersea Warfare Center-Keyport has 1,289 employees overall.
The unions state they already have the work and the money to pay for it. It must be completed. To furlough people would only make that more difficult. At the end of the fiscal year, Keyport will have at least $106 million left over because it has been paid for projects it doesn’t have the manpower to complete because of a hiring freeze and attrition, the unions say.
“We are concerned that, in addition to the loss of pay these civilian employees now face and the subsequent impact this will have on our local communities, moving forward with these furloughs will reduce the ability of our civilian workforce to complete workload which is already funded,” Kilmer wrote. “Further restricting available workforce resources will result in mission delays, eventual overtime and greater cost to the Department and taxpayers.”
There’s no timetable for a response, but Kilmer’s staff will stay on it until it gets one,” spokesman Stephen Carter said.
Decision notices were sent to employees via email Monday, said Wayne Patterson, chairman of the NUWC Bremerton Metal Trades Council, who has received more than 150 requests for applications to appeal to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. The board rejected appeals so far as premature, saying they can’t be ruled on until furloughs take effect.
The Federal Services Impasses Panel, which handles impasses between federal agencies and unions that represent federal employees, is determining whether it has jurisdiction in the Keyport case, Patterson said.