Town Hall meeting to address AF civilian workforce restructuring

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Leadership from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, with the support of the 100th Force Support Squadron Civilian Personnel Office, are currently seeking realignment for civilian positions affected by the recent Air Force-wide adjustments to the civilian workforce.

In response to direction from the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force eliminated about 9,000 positions. These adjustments reflect several initiatives designed to align limited resources based on Air Forces priorities. This process is an ongoing effort to increase efficiencies, reduce overhead and eliminate redundancy.

Col. Christopher Kulas, 100th ARW commander, scheduled a town hall meeting to discuss the Air Force civilian workforce restructuring at the RAF Mildenhall theater on Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. Representatives from the Civilian Personnel Office will be available to answer questions.

Upon receiving the Secretary of Defense's 2010 memo directing that civilian manpower costs stay within fiscal year 2010 levels, the Air Force began a comprehensive strategic review of the entire AF civilian workforce to determine whether or not civilian authorizations were in the right places to meet mission priorities.

"We are making difficult choices about how to deliberately restructure and posture the force and will continue to look for new ways of accomplishing the mission," said Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley. "We can't afford business as usual."

The strategic review revealed several imbalances. Some high priority areas needed to grow, while some management and overhead functions needed streamlining. These imbalances led to a variety of initiatives focused on realigning scarce manpower resources with the most critical missions.

In particular, the Air Force will grow by approximately 5,900 positions in acquisition, the nuclear enterprise, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other key areas while reducing approximately 9,000 positions in management, staff and support areas.

"We clearly understand the turbulence these and future reductions will cause in the workforce," said Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz. "We are making every effort to use voluntary measures to achieve reductions whenever possible."

Air Force-wide, local leaders will be sharing the results of the civilian manpower adjustments with their workforces over the next several days.

"Civilian manpower adjustments will occur at all levels of the Air Force," said Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso, Director of Manpower, Organization and Resources. "We are focused on shaping the force within our fiscal constraints and are committed to maintaining our long history of excellence as we build the Air Force of the future.

"At this time, we are not sure whether a reduction in force will be necessary," Grosso said. "We are pursuing all available voluntary force management measures to include civilian hiring controls with the goal of avoiding non-voluntary measures. Every vacancy we don't fill brings us one position closer to fiscal year 2010 levels, and reduces the possibility for a RIF."

Given the constrained fiscal environment, Air Force members should expect continued workforce shaping measures affecting military, civilian and contractors, Grosso said.

For more information, contact the Civilian Personnel Office at DSN 238-3668.

(Lt. Col. Cynthia Anderson, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs, contributed to this article.)