Defense Department employees who lose their jobs to contractors would have less time to find new work under a proposal the Pentagon is considering.
When jobs are going to be privatized, DoD must alert employees 120 days before they are going to be laid off, according to federal law. The 120-day rule applies when 50 or more employees lose their jobs to contractors in a public-private competition under OMB Circular A-76, which agencies use to decide whether programs are more cost-effective if they are handled by federal workers or private contractors.
A-76 competitions typically take about two years to complete. Historically at DoD, half of such competitions are won by contractors and half are awarded to federal workers.
Under a proposal DoD personnelists are discussing, the 120-day notification period for reductions-in-force (RIFs) resulting from A-76 competitions would be reduced to 60 days. Two months' notice "should be sufficient because personnel undergoing OMB Circular A-76 cost competition studies know the potential outcome of such studies well in advance," says a discussion paper circulating among Defense human resource specialists and employee groups. The paper notes that the proposal is "pre-decisional" and "for discussion only."
Federal Managers Association spokesman Mark Gable said the proposal is a bad idea.
"If someone is getting RIFed, they need enough time to figure out what they are going to do for the rest of their lives," Gable said.
The RIF proposal is one in a series of civilian personnel reforms the Defense Department is mulling. Pentagon human resource managers and labor unions have been meeting for months hashing out plans to make DoD's workforce more flexible. Other proposals include setting up a broad-band pay system, giving DoD permanent buyout authority and enacting other pay and benefits reforms.
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