Obama administration tells contractors again: Don’t issue layoff notices

The guidance said that if plant closings or mass layoffs
occur under sequestration, then “employee compensation costs for [Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notification] WARN act liability as determined by a court” would
be paid for covered by the contracting federal agency.

{mosads}Senate Republicans, who accused the White House of trying to
hide job losses after the first guidance, said Friday that the new OMB
statement “puts politics ahead of American workers.”

“The Obama Administration is cynically trying to skirt the
WARN Act to keep the American people in the dark about this looming national
security and fiscal crisis,” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said in a statement. “The president should
insist that companies act in accordance with the clearly stated law and move
forward with the layoff notices.”

The fight over WARN Act notices began in June when Lockheed
Martin CEO Bob Stevens said his company might send the notices to all 123,000
of its employees.

Some companies were hesitant to follow Lockheed, but several
others told McCain in letters earlier this month they might send the notices,
too, despite the Labor Department guidance.

But the new guidance would appear to address one of the
chief concerns from the companies — that they could be liable to compensate
employees who were laid off if the companies don’t issue the notices.

The GOP senators complained, however, that this tactic would
push the cost of the layoffs onto taxpayers.

A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman told The Hill that the company
is still reviewing the documents.

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