Pay freeze for US facility workers
20 Dec 2010
Washington, DC – The US government is stopping salary and bonus pool increases for site and facility management contractor employees.
The pay freeze is expected to affect around 75,000 workers. who manage day-to-day operations at certain US department of energy (DoE) sites and facilities, including national laboratories.
The decision covers 28 sites and facilities will be effective 1 Jan, 2011, and is applicable to all facility-wide wage and salary increases.
For sites that have already approved and implemented increases, the freeze would begin at the beginning of their next salary increase cycle and also last two years.
“As our nation continues to recover from these challenging economic times, households and small businesses across the country are making sacrifices,” said US energy secretary Steven Chu.
“In this spirit, we are asking our contractor employees, who are doing important research, operations, and environmental cleanup work, to join the federal workforce in playing a part.”
Chu added: “Our national labs, the country’s crown jewels for leading research and development, will continue to attract and retain the nation’s top scientists, and pursue some of the most important discoveries that will lead us into the 21st century.”
