BATH

Nearly 200 employees who work at the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Bath Iron Works received furlough notices Friday.

The move had been expected since at least March, when congressional talks broke down over automatic budget cuts known as “sequestration.” Workers will be forced to take 11 days of unpaid leave beginning Monday, July 8, the Department of Defense said.

“The SupShip DOD furloughs won’t affect BIW from our own employment standpoint,” Barth Iron Works spokesman Jim DeMartini said today. “While I don’t have all the details yet on the furloughs, I am confident that the government will continue to inspect our work and be available to work with us on a day-today basis.”

Bath’s workers are among nearly 2,000 civilian shipyard workers being furloughed statewide. Nationally, as many as 800,000 civilian workers could be forced to take one day of leave per week without pay.

The SupShip office oversees the design and construction of destroyers at the privately owned shipyard and at five other shipyards across country. Employees will lose a day of pay for 11 weeks, beginning July 8 through the end of September — a 20 percent pay cut over that time period.

Workers say having fewer employees to inspect ships could put sailors at risk while at sea.

SupShip has an operations center across Washington Street from BIW. Employees there work in engineering, contracting, quality assurance, program management, payroll and human relations.

“We recognize the impact that’s going to have on them,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello said in March. “That adds up to 20 percent of their pay. It isn’t good for the local economy, it really isn’t good for anybody.”

Furloughs for SUPSHIP Bath’s 200 had been expected to start in the last week of April and remain in effect for 22 weeks.

SupShip Bath has about 40 employees in quality assurance and another 40 who manage Navy contracts. Its 30 quality assurance specialists also spend most of their time on the waterfront.

SupShip Bath traces its origin to 1931, when BIW was constructing its first post- World War I destroyers.

In 1991, SUPSHIP Brooklyn and SUPSHIP Boston joined Bath as resident detachments, and subsequently disestablished as a result of downsizing of this Naval Shore establishment.