Columbus Air Force Base officials have confirmed that furloughs for more than 470 of its civilian employees will take effect July 8 and continue through the remainder of the fiscal year.
Officials stated in an email to The Dispatch that the base’s appropriated civilian workforce will be furloughed one day per week until Fiscal Year 2013-14 begins in October, resulting in a 20-percent pay cut for each of those weeks. Of CAFB’s 1,277 civilian employees, 472 are appropriated civil service workers.
“We will continue to conduct the 14th Flying Training Wing mission to produce pilots, advance airman and feed the fight,” officials said. “However, we will definitely feel the impact of a manning shortfall of our valued team members.”
According to a previous Dispatch report in March, CAFB officials were preparing for the probability of furlough notices and reductions due to sequestration.
Statewide furloughs for another military branch’s bases — the National Guard — were announced last wee by Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Collins. More than 1,400 National Guard employees will each have to take an additional 11 days off over the next four months. Those furloughs were enacted at bases in Hattiesburg, Gulfport, Grenada, Meridian, Jackson and Tupelo.
“These furloughs will in no way impact the Mississippi National Guard’s ability to respond to any natural or man-made disasters here in the state,” Collins said in an Associated Press story last week. “We’ll be able to handle those just as we’ve been able to in the past.”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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