Air Force to Cut Civilian Workforce Through Reductions in Force

The Air Force will soon begin issuing reductions in force to 1,000 civilian employees, the service announced this week.

A 2015 review of Air Force needs identified more than 1,000 “overages” in 48 installations, the military branch said, creating positions that are no longer funded. The agency will attempt to avoid completely separating any employees, however, instead using the RIF flexibility to place them in other jobs or to reduce their pay.

The Air Force has for two years engaged in voluntary efforts to reduce the size of its civilian workforce. In 2015, the service walked away from planned forced layoffs, with Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James saying the service had already cut sufficiently. The branch attempted to shed 3,500 employees through buyouts and early retirement offers in 2014, and offered more incentives last year. It said the current RIFs, which will be completed by early April, have nothing to do with sequestration.

Cuts to date have focused on headquarters offices, following a directive from then Defense Department Secretary Chuck Hagel to trim HQ staff by 20 percent. If not for those efforts, the Air Force said, the current round of involuntary separation would be far more severe.

"Voluntary efforts to balance the civilian workforce since fiscal year 2014 have moved us significantly closer to our target manning levels," said Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services. "We have reduced the number of affected employees through several rounds of voluntary separation and retirement programs as well as reassignments to vacant positions."

The goal, according to the Air Force, is to move “overages” into funded positions. It can also reduce employees’ pay grade and waive job qualification requirements for other openings. If employees are separated, they will be put in the Defense “Priority Placement Program” and be considered for future vacancies. The options, Grosso said, are part of the Air Force’s efforts to use “every possible measure to minimize personal financial hardship for our civilian workforce and their families."

Debra Warner, the Air Force’s director of civilian force management policy, said the voluntary reduction efforts were insufficient in reaching desired personnel levels.

“The Air Force recognizes and strives to balance the invaluable contributions of our civilian workforce with the fiscal realities under which the DoD and the government as a whole are operating,” Warner said.

J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, deplored the cuts and said they would ultimately prove a poor investment for the federal government.

“If the goal is to increase costs to taxpayers while eroding our military readiness, the Air Force will certainly succeed,” Cox said. Eventually, he explained, the reductions will lead to relying more on contractors and military personnel.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office found the Pentagon was not properly tracking the costs associated with civilian workforce cuts, noting the department may not wind up realizing any savings at all. GAO specifically said Defense must ensure any savings “are not achieved through unjustified transfers of functions between or among the military, civilian and service contractor personnel workforces of DoD.”

In another recently announced shakeup for civilians at the Air Force, the service will move 13,000 personnel at the Materiel Command out of the General Schedule system and into a more flexible, “contribution-based” one this year. The change will nearly double the number of Defense civilians participating in the demonstration project.