Furlough related commissary closures will happen weekly on Mondays instead of Wednesdays, starting as soon as April 21, according to a memo obtained by SpouseBuzz and Military.com.
The closure change is the result of an agreement between the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) and the union, American Federation of Government Employees Council 172, which represents the federal employees at the commissary.
If the commissary is already closed Mondays, which many are, it will instead remain closed on the next regularly scheduled open day, according to the agreement. For example, if the commissary is regularly closed Mondays but open the rest of the week, it will take each Tuesday as a furlough day.
DeCA had announced late last month that it would shut its doors on Wednesdays as a way of complying with the Pentagon's plan to furlough employees through September as a result of sequestration budget cuts.
"While we still hope sequestration will be avoided, we must, nevertheless, be prepared and plan accordingly," DeCA Director, Joseph Jeu wrote in the memo announcing that plan. "Consequently, after much deliberation, analysis and consideration, we developed several actions that will reduce spending to the level mandated by Congress, should sequestration happen."
Originally the closures were supposed to kick-in the week of March 31. But the Defense Department announced last week that they are delaying all furloughs, including those of commissary employees, until at least late April.
