LIHU‘E — Manu Kai, the primary support contractor for the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility, will be notifying 14 full-time employees this week of impending lay-offs, the company’s program manager said Wednesday. “After extensive deliberation, Manu Kai management has
LIHU‘E — Manu Kai, the primary support contractor for the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility, will be notifying 14 full-time employees this week of impending lay-offs, the company’s program manager said Wednesday.
“After extensive deliberation, Manu Kai management has decided to take the lowest cut possible to minimize the impact on our workforce and ensure continued operational support for our customers,” James Eken said in a written statement.
Impacted employees are “spread across several of our work areas” in the range operations services segment of the contract, Eken said.
“Manu Kai is adjusting its workforce to meet the Navy’s performance-based contract obligations and requirements,” wrote PMRF spokesperson Tom Clements in an e-mail Wednesday. “PMRF will work closely with Manu Kai to ensure a smooth transition and minimal impact on PMRF mission (if any) and its customers.”
While unable to give the exact details of the contract’s current financial “performance,” the agreement was awarded a “fixed price” of almost $53 million on October 2008 for range operations and base operations supports services, Clements wrote.
The contract currently “includes a one-year base period, with nine one-year option periods,” he said. If these are “exercised,” the total estimated value of the contract would be elevated to some $738 million.
Work is expected to be completed by September 2018 and would continue on Kaua‘i, Clements said.
There is a “possibility” that the workforce could be rehired, but would be “based upon an increase in range operations,” Eken said.
The wife of an employee who said she wished to remain anonymous has “great concern for the security” of her husband’s job, “the jobs of others” and “the stability of our families,” she wrote in an e-mail Wednesday morning.
PMRF’s workforce is comprised of around 1,000 employees, about 500 of which are contracted with Manu Kai, Clements said.
“PMRF continues with robust test and evaluation and fleet training requirements,” he said when asked how the base might potentially be affected by the lay-offs. “PMRF is just as viable as ever as Kaua‘i’s largest high-tech employer.”
