Obama administration tries to block sequester layoff notices

Read the whole thing at Hot Air: the White House will press government contractors to hold off on issuing layoff notices in October in anticipation of the sequestration cuts, afraid of the political backlash that will ensue.  In fact, the Obama administration is offering to indemnify government contractors for losses and fines for delaying those notices.

So, defense companies are required to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires companies to give advance warning to workers deemed reasonably likely to lose their jobs.  Obama doesn't want them giving notice, as required by WARN, 60 days before sequestration, because that's just before the election.  Sooo...

If an (government) agency terminates or modifies a contract, and the contractor must close a plant or lay off workers en masse, the company could treat employee compensation costs for WARN Act liability, attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs as allowable costs to be covered by the contracting agency—so long as the contractor has not issued those 60 day (required) notices.

In other words, break the law and we (the government, financed by the taxpayers) will pay for whatever problems arise.