US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump’s Layoff Deadline

Agencies using lump-sum payments, early retirement program to cut federal employees

March 13 is deadline to send plans for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal challenge

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) – Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they rush to meet President Donald Trump’s Thursday due date for them to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Food and Drug Administration, are amongst the firms which have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resource specialists at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lenders.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s extraordinary campaign to upgrade the federal government. One of his top consultants, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used rewards of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

“If your technique is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that reduces the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run,” said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed via media leaks the number of workers they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has actually yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government’s personnels department that is collating the data, an individual acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to respond.

At the General Services Administration, workers were notified on Monday that OPM had actually greenlit a plan to offer an early retirement program to all qualified workers.

“I encourage each of you to consider your choices as we progress,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. “The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes.”

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

“There will be no extensions,” states the e-mail, evaluated by Reuters and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA’s Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous VSIP deal by including that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Employees, a union which represents 110,000 federal government employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing “a genuine program to further damage the capabilities of firms to complete their objective.”

OPM decreased to react to Lenkart’s remarks. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)