Pentagon civilian worker furloughs cut to 6 days

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon moved Tuesday to ease the pain of mandatory, unpaid furloughs that civilian employees have had to bear for a month because of budgetary pressures, cutting the number of days off from 11 to six.

Defense officials said the Pentagon found suff icient savings in the final months of the current fiscal year to lessen the burden on those who have had to take a day off a week without pay since early July. As a result, the final furlough day for most workers will be next week.

Altogether, officials said they were able to identify about $1.5 billion in new savings. About $1 billion of that was used to buy back the five furlough days and another $500 million is being used to restore money for Air Force training and flight hours.

But even as they eased some of the more painful budget cuts, defense officials told reporters Tuesday that the struggles have drastically demoralized the workforce, created difficult budget uncertainties and eroded military training and readiness to the extent that it will take months to recover.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved the final furlough numbers this week after meeting with top leaders. Officials discussed this situation only if granted anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about it publicly.

The decision came as about 650,000 civilian workers began their fifth week of furloughs, which have riled department employees and prompted many to complain directly to Hagel during his visits to military bases in recent weeks.