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

March 13 is due date to send prepare for large-scale layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of as much as $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal challenge

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple government companies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they rush to satisfy President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send prepare 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 companies which have actually offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource experts at numerous federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus deceitful lenders.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to upgrade the government. Among his leading 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 government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered bonuses 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 challenges. It also needs workers who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

"If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that decreases the risk 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 number of firms have actually telegraphed through media leakages the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's personnels department that is looking at the information, an individual familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to react.

At the General Services Administration, employees were informed on Monday that OPM had greenlit a strategy to offer an early retirement program to all eligible staff members.

"I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on performance and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," mentions 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 workers accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 government workers, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a legitimate program to additional damage the abilities of companies to finish their mission."

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