Lockheed Martin bows to administration, delays layoff notices until after election

Brett T. | 11:41 PM on October 01, 2012

ABC News is reporting that Lockheed Martin has dropped its plan to warn thousands of workers of impending layoffs, at least until after the election.

As Twitchy reported, the Office of Management and Budget on Friday sent revised guidance to defense contractors, saying that the government would pick up the legal costs incurred if they chose to ignore the WARN Act, which requires employers to give 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff or plant closing. In a statement, Lockheed acknowledged in a statement that the “allowable and recoverable” legal costs played a factor:

We will not issue sequestration-related WARN notices this year. The additional guidance offered important new information about the potential timing of DOD actions under sequestration, indicating that DOD anticipates no contract actions on or about 2 January, 2013, and that any action to adjust funding levels on contracts as a result of sequestration would likely not occur for several months after 2 Jan. The additional guidance further ensures that, if contract actions due to sequestration were to occur, our employees would be provided the protection of the WARN Act and that the costs of this protection would be allowable and recoverable.