Lockheed Martin, headquartered in Bethesda, has trimmed the number of employees who will be furloughed from 3,000 to 2,400 because of the government shutdown, the global security and aerospace said Monday.
The company employs 116,000 people worldwide and does a lot of work with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently announced that most of the nearly 400,000 civilian Defense employees have been deemed essential for national security. As a result, Lockheed Martin reduced the number affected by the government shutdown.
Because of the budget impasse between the House and the Senate, those particular Lockheed Martin employees are stymied because they need either a required government inspection, have received a stop-work order, or face a closed government facility where they can’t work.
“Of the 2,400 employees, approximately 2,100 work on civilian agency programs and 300 work on DoD programs. The affected employees are located in 27 states, with the majority based in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area,” a Lockheed Martin statement said Monday.
On Friday, when the company was looking at furloughing 3,000 employees, Lockheed Martin CEO and President Marillyn A. Hewson said in a company statement: “I’m disappointed that we must take these actions and we continue to encourage our lawmakers to come together to pass a funding bill that will end this shutdown.”
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She said that affected employees are encouraged to use “available vacation time so they can continue to receive their pay and benefits,” and added, “We hope that Congress and the administration are able to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”
Mr. Hagel echoed her sentiments.
“This has been a very disruptive year for our people — including active duty, National Guard and reserve personnel, and DoD civilians and contractors. Many important activities remain curtailed while the shutdown goes on. Civilians under furlough face the uncertainty of not knowing when they will next receive a paycheck,” he said in a DoD statement.
“I strongly support efforts in Congress to enact legislation to retroactively compensate all furloughed employees. And I will continue to urge Congress to fulfill its basic responsibilities to pass a budget and restore full funding for the Department of Defense and the rest of the government.”
• Maria Stainer can be reached at mstainer@washingtontimes.com.
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