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

March 13 is due date to send plans 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, 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 fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date 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 provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their tasks.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday deadline, personnel professionals at numerous federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus dishonest lending institutions.

All U.S. federal government companies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary campaign to upgrade the 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 property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. 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 individuals out the door voluntarily, that minimizes the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed through media leaks the number of employees they prepare 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming due date, no firm has actually yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government's human resources department that is looking at the information, an individual acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator wrote in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all its 19,000 workers revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to decide 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 prior VSIP offer by adding that workers accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the bonus, 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 federal government workers, said the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to more damage the capabilities 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)