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

March 13 is deadline to submit strategies 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 decrease headcount as they scramble to satisfy President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline 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 among the agencies which have actually provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnel professionals at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

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

All U.S. government companies have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary project to upgrade the government. Among his leading 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 residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also requires employees who have actually accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed via media leakages how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 company has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collecting the data, a person 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 individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to respond.

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

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

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

"There will be no extensions," mentions the e-mail, examined 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 offer by adding that employees accepting it would get 2 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 government employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a legitimate program to further damage the abilities of companies to finish 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)