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

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

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

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal difficulty

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send strategies for a second round of .

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

The buyout provides, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource specialists at numerous federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus unethical lending institutions.

All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to revamp the government. One of 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 federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide 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 actually currently offered benefits of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the money if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

"If your strategy is to get as numerous people out the door voluntarily, that lowers the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed through media leakages how many 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has actually yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collating the data, an individual knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. "The brand-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 email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states the email, 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 offer by adding that employees accepting it would get two months of complete 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, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to additional damage the abilities of agencies 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)