The Department of Defense recently awarded bonuses as high as $25,000 to the “top 15% of performers” among civilian workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard — a process that is generating complaints of favoritism and discrimination for the lack of clear criteria in choosing recipients.

The Trump administration rolled out the bonus program in December as a way to recognize “our very best civilians with meaningful monetary awards” across the department, including at the government-owned shipyard in Kittery.

Union leaders at the shipyard, where nearly 7,000 workers maintain U.S. Navy submarines, say managers were given a few days to identify and nominate potential recipients without having specific measures to gauge performance.

Some workers who received bonuses in recent weeks have shared the information proudly, including some who claimed they got as much as $20,000, said Dave Bosse, president of International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers Local 4, which represents 1,800 employees.

Others are staying quiet about their bonuses to avoid stirring dissent in the yard, where tensions have risen along with debate over who should or shouldn’t have received the extra pay, Bosse said.

“It’s unfortunate because morale has been kind of poor for a while,” Bosse said Wednesday. “Now 15% of our workers have improved morale and 85% feel worse. Those aren’t good numbers.”

HEGSETH ANNOUNCES BONUSES

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the bonus program in a Dec. 15 memo.

The stated goal was to reward workers for their dedication through the previous 10 months, when the Trump administration reduced the military’s civilian staff by more than 50,000 workers and there was a 43-day federal shutdown.

Hegseth said the bonuses would equal 15% to 20% of basic pay and be given by Jan. 30.

The memo said the bonuses would follow department instructions for giving awards to civilian personnel, but those instructions don’t include specific criteria for judging performance across multiple professions, shops and skill sets at the shipyard.

“I do not know how they determined who got them,” Bosse said. “I know I didn’t get one.”

The Department of Defense declined a request for an interview and didn’t answer emailed questions about the bonus program, including how many workers received bonuses, at which facilities and how much money was handed out overall. Instead, it suggested contacting the Navy, which didn’t respond Thursday.

The bonuses weren’t given out at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a privately owned shipyard and military contractor, which Hegseth visited this month and where the vast majority of the 6,900 employees don’t work for the defense department, according to a BIW spokesperson.

ADDESSING WORKER DISTRESS

Bosse said his local is attempting to address workers’ concerns in collaboration with other unions at the shipyard. He met Wednesday with the president of the Metal Trades Council, an umbrella organization that represents about 3,500 workers in eight separate locals, including plumbers, pipefitters, electricians and machinists.

They’re trying to determine exactly how the bonuses were distributed, he said, especially since unions are geared toward ensuring workplace equity and fairness, and preventing favoritism and discrimination.

“We’re trying to learn more and decide how we can help our people,” Bosse said.

Many workers at the shipyard deserve a bonus, he said, and many of them didn’t get one.

“It’s just sad that the bonuses were given out this way,” Bosse said. “We have an important job to do here and this is an unnecessary distraction.”