Firefighters could lose jobs because of age

Dozens of veteran contract firefighters for the Defense Department could lose their jobs next year because of federal age restrictions.

As part of a governmentwide insourcing initiative, the Air Force in January 2011 is planning to move in-house fire service jobs and other contract security and management positions at a plant in California. For 57 years, the military has relied on private sector firefighters to keep watch over Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., a government-owned, contractor-operated facility that is home to some of the Defense Department's most classified and advanced aerospace projects.

The plant's 55 firefighters and managers want to transition into the federal civil service, but many will be ineligible to compete for their jobs because of the government's age restriction for fire operations personnel. Civil service firefighters cannot be older than 37 at the time of hire and face a mandatory retirement at age 57. The age requirements would prohibit nearly 90 percent of the current workforce from applying for their current jobs -- positions they have held in some cases for 40 years.

Capt. Raymond S. Bower argues his employees at the 5,800-acre facility are victims of age discrimination. Many of them are too young to retire and could find themselves searching for work in their mid-50s, he said. California's 12.8 percent unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation.

"We have [a combined] 1,000 years of experience and all of this knowledge. But they still want to bring in new people," said Bower, who serves as president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local I-25. "It doesn't seem fair."

The Air Force can waive the age restriction but hasn't committed yet to doing so in this case. "The DoD established the maximum entry age of 37 for original firefighter appointment to positions with primary duties directly connected to controlling and extinguishing fires," 1st Lt. Derek White, an Air Force spokesman said in a statement last week. "The secretary of the Air Force may waive the maximum entry age only if there is a compelling hardship to the Air Force, i.e., to overcome a recruiting shortfall."

The age requirement also can be waived as a preference for veterans, but Bower said few on his staff have served in the military.

Air Force Fire Chief Donald Warner has said age should have no bearing on whether firefighters keep their jobs.

"I have recommended that there is no compelling reason for the age restriction anymore and that it be completely eliminated for all firefighters," Warner said in a Nov. 13, 2009, e-mail to the contract firefighters that was obtained by Government Executive. "This would require legislation to eliminate the max retirement age requirement. In the meantime, veterans should be allowed to enter primary firefighter positions without regard to the 37 max entry age and exceed the 57 max retirement age."

State and federal lawmakers are trying to put the brakes on the insourcing plan. Sen. John McCain., R-Ariz., and Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., the ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services committees, respectively, have met with Plant 42 firefighters. McKeon, whose district includes Palmdale, is concerned that the military is relying on arbitrary insourcing targets without regard to the consequences.

"This is forcing military installations to insource some jobs that are better served as a contracted function, such as the firefighters at Air Force Plant 42," McKeon told Government Executive on Tuesday. "The loss of these jobs is particularly troubling. It ends a 50-year tradition of cooperation and potentially raises costs for training and new equipment." During the past several decades, the fire contract at Plant 42 has changed hands five times, and in each instance, the new contractor hired the existing personnel and the work continued uninterrupted, Bower said.

In February, Reps. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, and Randy Forbes, R-Va., the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking that the Air Force reevaluate its plans for Plant 42 or provide the fire personnel with an age waiver. The Pentagon has not responded yet to the letter.

In 2009, Defense announced plans to dramatically cut its use of service contractors. The Air Force Materiel Command has targeted a $561 million decrease in contract spending by 2015, according to the agency's January 2010 internal insourcing guidance. The plan, released on Monday by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, contains draft contract conversion orders and talking points for handling dismissed contractors.

The Air Force said in a statement that it is performing a detailed analysis to determine the most cost-effective method for distributing the workload at Plant 42. That study has not been completed yet.

Pyramid Services Inc., a North Carolina-based small business, has the operations and maintenance contract at Plant 42. The five-year, fixed-price award fee contract was competitively bid and expires on July 31. The Air Force said it could extend the contract temporarily until the conversion is completed in January 2011.

Bower said it will be impossible for the Air Force to replace the experience of the current personnel. "There is no way the government can do this contract cheaper," he said. "It would take an increase of six to eight positions alone just to fill the same amount of work we do."