Westmoreland on President’s Recommendation to Hold Off on Sequester Layoff Warnings
By Rep. Lynn Westmoreland
October 15, 2012
Earlier this month, the Obama Administration and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) gave the recommendation to defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin to not issue sequester layoff warnings. This is a direct violation of the WARN Act, which protects workers by requiring employers with 100+ employees to give a 60 day notification of mass layoffs. Obama and the OMB’s recommendation is another example of the administration’s assumption they are above the law and can bypass the court system. The OMB cannot guarantee the outcome in court if such violation of the WARN Act was taken to trial. They are prolonging the inevitable and putting both the employees of Lockheed Martin and the company itself at risk, along with adding the extra cost of going to court. The defense industry is already hurting with sequestration looming, and putting the hundreds of thousands of employee warnings off for political gain is just making a bad situation worse.
The House voted over 150 days ago to replace the defense cuts, and we are now waiting on the Senate Democrats and President to work with us to get things done before these devastating cuts. The people who work so hard for our country deserve to know if they may lose their job and we need to give them the time to prepare for that scenario. Above all they shouldn’t be punished for the inaction of the Senate or the misguidance of the Administration.