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

March 13 is deadline 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 difficulty

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they rush to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to submit 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 Food and Drug Administration, are amongst the firms which have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnel specialists at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest loan providers.

All U.S. government firms have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary campaign to revamp the government. Among 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 home portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered benefits of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

"If your strategy is to get as lots of people out the door willingly, that reduces the threat 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 agencies have telegraphed via media leaks how numerous employees they plan to cut in the second 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 planning to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collating the data, a person familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your options as we progress," 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 effectiveness and high-value results."

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all its 19,000 staff members 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, examined by Reuters and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA's Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior VSIP offer by including that employees accepting it would get 2 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 Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 federal government employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to further damage the abilities of firms to finish their mission."

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