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

March 13 is deadline to submit prepare for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $25,000

*

Buyout program less susceptible to legal obstacle

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple government firms are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Fda, are amongst the agencies which have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnel professionals at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous loan providers.

All U.S. federal government companies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to revamp the government. One of his top advisers, 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 property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

"If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that minimizes the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed via media leaks the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's human resources 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 understanding of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.

At the General Services Administration, workers were notified on Monday that OPM had actually greenlit a strategy to use an early retirement program to all eligible employees.

"I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. "The 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 out an email to all its 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, due date to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," specifies the email, reviewed 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 perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to more damage the abilities of firms to finish their mission."

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