Furloughs called off at UTC

Furloughs called off at UTC, Thanks to the Pentagon's decision Saturday to recall almost all of its furloughed civilian employees back to work, United Technologies Corp. has canceled thousands of furloughs of its own planned to begin Monday.

The Hartford, Conn.,-based company announced on Sunday it would reverse its decision to furlough 2,000 Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. employees beginning Monday and as many as 5,000 workers depending on the length of the government shutdown.

"United Technologies greatly appreciates the efforts of those in the Administration and Congress who facilitated the recall of the furloughed civilian employees in the U.S. Department of Defense," said UTC, in a statement.

The company had said it would have to shut down some manufacturing work because it is required to undergo audit and approval of military product manufacture by federal inspectors, deemed non-essential by the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon said it was recalling most -- but not all -- of the 400,000 non-essential civilians employed by the Department of Defense. Furloughed Defense employees made up roughly half of the federal workers put temporarily out of work by the shutdown.

A law signed by President Barack Obama Tuesday, shortly after the beginning of the shutdown, not only mandated the continuation of pay for military personnel, but also allowed Defense to recall its furloughed employees back at will.