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

March 13 is deadline to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of approximately $25,000

*

Buyout program less susceptible to legal obstacle

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they rush to satisfy President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to submit prepare for a second 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 used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday due date, human resource specialists at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against dishonest 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 project to revamp the federal government. One of his leading advisors, 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 seeking approval to provide 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 provided bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the money if they take another government job within 5 years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed through media leakages the number of employees they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They consist of 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 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's personnels department that is collecting the data, an individual acquainted with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to respond.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives 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 efficiency and high-value results."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would have 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 prior VSIP offer by adding that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, 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 legitimate program to further damage the capabilities of companies 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)