Layoffs at PenFed Potentially Impact Hundreds of Employees
Multiple sources, including current and former employees, report layoffs as PenFed officials remain quiet about the details.
On the morning of Nov. 1, the McLean, Va.-based Pentagon Federal Credit Union held a series of video calls on Microsoft Teams to let potentially hundreds of employees know that they no longer had a job at the credit union.
According to multiple sources contacted by CU Times, the number of employees laid off by the $35.8 billion PenFed range from 200 to 600 people located across numerous states around the country. The layoffs appeared to focus on remote employees who worked in the lending departments of the credit union.
Since learning of the layoffs earlier this month, CU Times has been able to confirm through sources and documentation that the layoffs not only occurred on Nov. 1, but also in September.
CU Times reached out to PenFed on Wednesday to provide details about the layoffs, but received no response.
A current PenFed employee stated, “It was messaged as a labor adjustment due to market conditions due to decreased loan volume … they have been very quiet about it and won’t say total numbers or departments.”
On Nov. 2, when CU Times first learned of the layoffs, we reached out to PenFed for comment and received a statement from PenFed Vice President of Corporate Communications Kassandra Sebastia. It read, “PenFed makes business decisions to best serve and provide value to our members. This includes making strategic changes due to the economic climate and shifting market. We support impacted employees during their transition and treat them with respect and care.”
PenFed has not confirmed the number of employees laid off, their positions or locations. While PenFed has not publicly provided such details, two credit unions have proactively shared layoff notices with the public in recent months.
In September, the $10.6 billion GreenState Credit Union in North Liberty, Iowa announced it had laid off 42 employees because of “market corrections and rising interest rates.” Most of the labor cuts occurred in GreenState’s mortgage lending or commercial banking operations.
In October, the $1.5 billion Collins Community Credit Union in Cedar Rapids, Iowa announced it laid off 38 employees because of declining consumer demand for mortgage loans and refinancing.
According to documentation and interviews, the PenFed layoffs happened in at least seven states. Those states included California, Nebraska, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Texas and Idaho. CU Times has searched each state’s database for official documentation of the layoffs.
No layoffs by PenFed have been reported in any of the states listed, and that may be due to a reporting law that has not been consistently enacted across all states.
The WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to provide a written notice at least 60 calendar days in advance of a worksite closing to their employees and state employment agencies when it affects 50 or more employees, or a mass layoff affecting at least 50 employees and one-third of the worksite’s total workforce or 500 or more employees at the single site of employment during any 90-day period, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
State agencies post these written notices on their websites.
While many states follow the federal WARN Act requirements, some states have enacted layoff notice laws that differ somewhat from federal laws, according to the Lunt Group, a Sandy, Utah-based company that publishes information regarding federal and state employment laws.
It should be noted that not all dislocations require a 60-day notice.
According to the Department of Labor, the WARN Act makes certain exceptions to the requirements when employers can show that layoffs or worksite closings occur due to faltering companies, unforeseen business circumstances and natural disasters. In such instances, the WARN Act requires employers to provide as much notice to their employees as possible.
CU Times does not know why there haven’t been any WARN notices posted as of this publication. One reason appears to be that fewer than 50 PenFed employees were laid off in each of the seven states listed.
CU Times has communicated with some employees who were laid off on Nov. 1 – all of whom wished to remain anonymous due to the fear of losing their severance.
One employee said that PenFed “changed my life for the better,” but the way they were treated in the end “didn’t make any sense” because they were “making a lot of money for the credit union” and were only given 30 days severance.
In a message to CU Times, one former employee stated, “The right thing to do would be to pay us one more month severance (60 days total) to get us to that new year given the timing, and the climate of the industry and the holiday season.”
Over the course of the past two weeks, former employees have been posting about the layoffs on Indeed.com, LinkedIn and private Facebook Groups.
Posts included statements such as, “I’m going to miss this job.” Others stated, “Families don’t have layoffs. Protect PenFed jobs!”
According to the documentation CU Times has read, many employees who were laid off are “eligible to reapply for positions within PenFed.”