Pentagon starts furloughs for civilian workers

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-7-9 9:19:19

The Pentagon began furloughs for more than 650,000 civilian employees on Monday in an austerity move expected to slash Pentagon spending by $1.8 billion through September.

Monday marked the first of 11 days of unpaid leave that the majority of Pentagon's 800,000 civilian employees are facing. The move will effectively cut the paychecks of the 650,000 workers by nearly 20 percent through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered the furloughs as the Pentagon was imposed a 37-billion-dollar sequestration spending cut in the fiscal year 2013 in order to curb the US government's nearly trillion-dollar deficit.

The Pentagon initially warned that as many as 22 unpaid days off would be needed to meet the target and later reduced it to 11 days.

Most of the Pentagon civilian employees will be furloughed on Mondays. Military personnel are not subject to furloughs as they are exempt from the government's sequester spending cutbacks that started in March.

Posted in: Americas

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