Some good new for local federal workers. The Defense Department announced it will reduce the number of unpaid furlough days civilian defense workers have to take over the next several months. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided Wednesday to reduce the unpaid furlough days to 14, down from 22, a decision that will affect as many as 700,000 civilian employees. The military had been faced with some $43 billion in automatic, across-the-board cuts that kicked in March 1, but lawmakers passed a massive spending bill last week that shifted money around in order to give the Defense Department more flexibility in how it found the savings. While some of the military services initially considered eliminating the furloughs altogether, senior leaders argued that since not all the services could do that, it would be better to treat all civilians across the defense department equally. Initially, civilians would have been required to take one day a week off without pay for 22 weeks, through the end of the fiscal year on September 30 — a 20 percent pay cut for more than five months. The congressional action has given officials the leeway to lessen the salary cuts and also spread money around to other key priorities, including training, maintenance and possible ship deployments. Under the new plan, the 14 unpaid furloughs would not begin until mid-June, with notices going out before that.
